From: [d c d] at [se.houston.geoquest.slb.com] (Dan Day)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: CNN anti-gun distortion
Date: 7 Oct 1993 22:31:07 GMT

Does anyone care to point out all the logical flaws and misuses
of statistics in the following CNN story?  I'll get around to
it myself, but for now I'm tired from doing the transcribing.
Also, what does the NEJM article *really* say?

The following is verbatim from a CNN Headline News broadcast on October
6, 1993.  They've been playing it every half hour since at least
yesterday evening, and they're still playing it this morning.
Not only that, but they're using the claim "households with guns
put themselves at risk" in all of their "teaser" spots, right
alongside the Somalia brouhaha.  I've transcribed it from a
video tape I made, then double-checked it.  The only parts
that might be in error are the spellings of the names of the
two CNN reporters, as they did not appear in a caption.
The intro changes somewhat each half hour, but the rest is
broadcast without change.  In one intro, which I unfortunately
didn't tape, Goodenough starts the presentation with the
statement that an "alarming" number of U.S. homes have guns.
Alarming?  Isn't this blatant editorializing?

----

[Anchor David Goodenough (Goodenow?)]: A new study out suggests
people who keep a gun at home for protection actually triple
their chances of being killed.  Rhonda Rollin (sp?) reports.

Rollin: Surveys show half the homes in the United States
contain at least one gun.  

   [Cut to the home of "Mark Wilson, Gun Owner".  Mark appears to
   be in his mid twenties, and looks like a blonde football player.]

Wilson:  I'm into a lot of hunting and target shooting I
enjoy both and I also keep it in case of self defense,
I feel it's a fundamental right for a person to be
able to defend themselves, their home, and their family.

Rollin:  He keeps a handgun in his bedside nightstand.
   [Rollin manages to say this in a tone combining shock and
   sorrow.]

Wilson:  This is my pad, this is where I live, and this is
where I keep my junk, so that's why I keep it in here.

   [Cut to very close shot of gun, slide is jacked, magazine is
    extracted and dropped on bed, followed by shells.]
Rollin:  Although other studies have suggested keeping
guns in the home is dangerous, researchers say that a
study in this week's New England Journal of Medicine
is the most persuasive to date.

   [Cut to "Arthur Kellerman, Emory Center for Injury Control",
    sitting at his computer.]

Kellerman:  What we found was that in contrast to many
people's expectation -- those who keep guns in their home
for protection -- guns in fact increase the risk of homicide
in the home almost three times over comparable homes
without guns.

Rollin:  More than three fourths of the victims were killed
by a spouse, family member, or someone else they knew.
And there's no evidence that the guns provide protection.
Kellerman says even in the 14% of homicides that involve
someone forcing their way into a home, there was no evidence
the homeowner's guns protected anyone.  But the National Rifle
Association claims surveys show that about a million homeowners
used guns for protection each year.

   [Cut to "Paul Blackman, National Rifle Association", sitting
    in front of a bookshelf.]

Blackman:  But if they're trying to look at how many times a
criminal is killed, that's only about perhaps, two-tenths of
one percent of the protective uses of guns annually.  So looking
at homicide is just looking at the wrong dataset.

   [Back to Kellerman.]

Kellerman:  Even for people who have guns readily available,
fewer than four percent of burglaries of occupied residences
in the United States are resisted by someone with a gun.

   [Cut to a scene of black man on stretcher beeing wheeled
    through hospital corridors.]

Rollin:  The study shows the risk of homicide was even greater
if the gun owner rents or lives alone.  Previous arrests, illegal
drug use, and domestic violence also increase risk.  Kellerman
recommends that guns and ammunition be locked away seperately,
or better yet, removed from the home.  Rhonda Rollins, CNN
medical news, Atlanta.   [Lingering shot of rifles on wall rack.]