[ServesURight]

Where's the FReeper who usually posts that "Man on the lifeboat" BS graphic??

[Dr.Deth]

In fact, the six states with the highest rates of gun ownership--Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Wyoming, West Virginia and Arkansas--had more than 21,000 homicides, nearly three times as many as the four states with the lowest rates of gun ownership--Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey.

OOH! OOH! Let me try! I'm good at playing Liberal Statmonger (TM)!

In fact, the forty-nine states with the highest rates of 
gun ownership... had nearly 50 times as many homicides as 
the state with the lowest rate of gun ownership.

Cretins.

[rockfish59]

Harvard/Reuters

Along with a portrait of Saddam, their names will be my next target at the range.

[Jeff Head]

Researchers note that more murders occur in states occupied by more people.

"In states where there were no people, there were no murders," they indicated.

[/sarcasm]

... that's about the mentality of these people.

[Godel]

"It is possible, for example, that locally elevated homicide rates may have led to increased local gun acquisition," they write.

Exactly. People always confuse correlation with causation.

[DarthRaven]

That article is full of anti-gun bovine excriment!

I've known many of West Virginians in my life time and alot of them are gun owners. However, I believe that West Virginia is definately one of the top five states in heart disease! WV has the least restrictive gun laws yet the lowest violent crime rates as compared to most other states. On the other hand, MD has draconian gun laws yet is still #1 in Robbery and #3 or 4 in other violent crimes (like murder, rape, etc.) Need to check statistics in the FBI Uniform Crime Reports for the past ten years.

[DarthRaven]

That article is further proof that doctors and other health care professionals need to stop playing politics and focus on preventing life-threatening medical mistakes!

[sneakypete]

Still, Miller's team notes that it is not clear whether the higher rates of household gun ownership caused or resulted from the increased number of homicides.

And there is the "yeah,BUT..." that allows them to spin facts into lies and still save their professional reputations.

[sargon]

Miller and his team investigated the association between homicide and rates of household firearm ownership using 1988-1997 data collected from the nine US census regions and the 50 states.

Who gives a crap about whether people say they have a gun in their home? That's not scientific proof. They are comparing a well known rate with a highly speculative rate, and failing to consider myriad other factors. There certainly is no causality here, although that seems to be the propagandist intent of most such studies. The presence of a gun in a household would probably tend to be under-reported in areas where their were stricter controls.

Such reporting would also necessarily be influenced by peoples' perception of the of local laws.

This would have to skew the results of any such study.

So, I'm not impressed with the "science" here. They can find out how many households have guns only by doing a house-to-house search...

[Republic of Texas]

Why don't we compare the populations of those states first. Just to be fair.

[Atlas Sneezed]

The actual study is now posted here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/802586/posts?page=1

[AlexW]

My 20 year old daughter, just a few days ago, was telling me she had seen the Columbine movie, and was reciting all the gun and murder statistics that were cited in the movie.

I mentioned that the statistics were probably out of context, but I had no facts to refute what she said...I need help.

[Texas Eagle]

The study findings imply "that guns, on balance, lethally imperil rather than protect Americans," lead study author Dr. Matthew Miller of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, told Reuters Health.

If the quantity of guns at hand leads to crimes committed with guns, then how come you never hear of a mass murder at a gun show or NRA convention?