Subj: Doctors respond:Headden S. "Guns, Money, and Medicine" 7/1/96 Date: 96-06-27 02:35:04 EDT From: EdgarSuter To: [l--t--s] at [usnews.com] [references provided for editorial confirmation only] June 26, 1996 Re: Headden S. "Guns, Money, and Medicine" USNWR 7/1/96 pp 31-40. Dear Editor, According to the Journal of the American Medical Association's analysis, every year 180,000 Americans die from physicians' negligence[1] - almost five times the number who die from guns. Why are doctors not declared a public health menace? It is because we save so many more lives than we take and so it is with America's guns where every year 2.5 million Americans use guns to protect themselves, their families, and their livelihoods - almost a 1/2 million lives saved[2] plus injuries prevented, medical costs averted, and property protected.[3] In 98% of these protective uses, as in my own protective use a year ago, the gun is not even fired,[4] no one is injured, police report is rarely necessary. As in my own case, we go home and hug our children, unnoticed by the media or the trauma surgeons who see and sensationalize only the outcomes of criminal and irresponsible gun use, never the success stories. To discuss the "costs" of guns without considering the benefits is as meaningless as noting operating room deaths without accounting for the surgical saves. The actual medical costs of gunshot wounds is $1.5 billion per year,[5] less than two-tenths of 1% of America's annual $900 billion health costs. The anti-self-defense lobby inflates this number to $80 billion by pretending that the victims are average people with average lifetimes and earnings, ignoring that 2/3rds of homicide victims are drug dealers and their customers and take a terrible toll on society in both human and economic costs.[3,6,7] They have even added the "cost" of lost work because employees gossip about gun violence.[8] If we use the prohibitionists' own method, we find that guns save 1/2 million lives and $500 billion annually (equivalent to about 10% of the US Gross Domestic Product)[3] --- Now _that_ is news! Yours, Edgar A. Suter MD National Chair Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research Inc. a national non-profit physicians think tank 5201 Norris Canyon Road #220 San Ramon CA 94583 voice 510-277-0333 FAX 510-277-1568 Note to the editor: We find it interesting that, though our organization has repeatedly testified to Congress on these issues, is published in the medical literature on these issues, and has even been attacked repeatedly by the New England Journal of Medicine in its editorials, your reporter, Ms. Susan Headden contacted none of the leaders of our organization. Please suggest to Ms. Headden that she do a more thorough job in the future. Thank you. References: [1] Leape LL. Error in medicine. JAMA. 1994; 272(23): 1851-57. [2] Kleck G and Gertz M. "Armed Resistance to Crime: the Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun." Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology. Summer 1995:; 86:143-186. [3] Suter EA Waters WC 4th Murray GB Hopkins CB Asiaf J Moore JB Fackler M Cowan DN Eckenhoff RG Singer TR et al. "Violence in America - Effective solutions." J Med Assoc Ga June 1995; 84(6):253-263. [4] Kleck G. Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. 1991. [5] Max W and Rice DP. Shooting in the dark: estimating the cost of firearm injuries. Health Affairs. 1993; 12(4): 171-85. [6] McGonigal MD, Cole J, Schwab W, Kauder DR, Rotondo MF, and Angood PB. Urban firearms deaths: a five-year perspective. J Trauma. 1993; 35(4): 532-36. [7] Hutson HR, Anglin D, and Pratss MJ. Adolescents and children injured or killed in drive-by shootings in Los Angeles. N Engl J Med. 1994; 330: 324-27. [8] Nieto M, Dunstan R, and Koehler GA. Firearm-related violence in california: incidence and economic costs. Sacramento CA: California Research Bureau, California State Library. October 1994.