From: [REDACTED] at [hprnd.rose.hp.com] (Steve Kao)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Re: A probable FAQ
Date: 25 Oct 1993 21:33:35 GMT
BAD MEDICINE KILLS MORE PEOPLE THAN ARE MURDERED?
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There have been recent postings on how the CDC (Center for Disease Control)
has (apparently) added firearms to the "diseases" list. From what I have
read, it seems like pure HCBH (or whatever) propaganda.
Could it be that bad doctors and bad hospitals are more of a killer
than forearms?
A recent (31-dec-89) CNN report on medicine stated that "surgical
excursions" killed more people than firearms in 1988. A "surgical
excursion" is when something happens that SHOULD not and that could
have been prevented. I.e., this is NOT an unexpected reaction to
penicillin but: the wrong medicine was given, the physician made
a mistake, the blood given was the wrong type and so.
I'm REALLY researching this one (well, CDC?), and what I have so far:
Homicides per 100,000 in 1987 ........................ 8.9
"Symptoms, signs, ill-defined conditions" in 1987 .... 13.7
The cause of deaths for 1987 is where I got the "Symptoms, signs,
ill-defined conditions" category. All the other medical terms were
such things as meningitis, viral hepatitis, 8 categroies of heart disease,
ulcers, hernias, and so on, and then the strangely named
"Symptoms, signs, ill-defined conditions". My research librarian says it
covers the "doctors or hospitals made a boo-boo" category.
I'm still researching, but these facts seem solid enough to post now.
SOURCE: The World Almanac Consumer Information Series, 1990.
Information in the rest of this posting comes from:
Report to the Nation on Crime and Justice, Second Edition, U.S.
Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, NCJ-105506,
March 1988.
HOW DO PEOPLE PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM CRIME?
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There has been debate of how much (if any!?) crime has been prevented by
owning a firearm.
The following figures are based on the BJS National Crime Survey,
1979-85, and are reported as follows. Note that only victims reporting
sucessful prevention are reported (i.e., no homicide figures).
The percent figure is the percentage of the victimizations that were
PREVENTED.
A weapon was used or brandished ... 3% in 1,206,755 rapes -----> 36,202
A weapon was used or brandished ... 4% in 8,484,516 robberies -> 339,380
A weapon was used or brandished ... 4% in 36,269,845 assaults --> 1,450,793
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1,826,375
Seems to me that 1.8 million violent victimizations speak pretty highly of
weapons use and brandishing.
VICTIM-OFFENDER RELATIONSHIP FOR HOMICIDES, ASSAULTS, ROBBERIES
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Again, most murder victims are NOT relatives!!
Homicide Robbery Assault
-------- ------- -------
Strangers 18% 75% 51%
Acquaintance 39% 17% 35%
Relative 18% 4% 4%
Unknown 26% 4% 4%
WEAPONS INVOLVED IN CRIME
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For 1985, for robbery and assaults, the following is how
many incidents involved a firearm and how many involved a knife.
Robbery Assault
------- -------
Firearm 23% 12%
Knife 21% 10%
What is MOST interesting is that in robbery and assaults, a gun was
ACTUALLY fired and hit the victim ONLY 4% of the time in all incidents
in 1985! Yet victims were actually stabbed in 10% in the knives incidents.
I.e., for robbery and assaults, it will be about even the number of times
a gun is used or a knife is used, yet if a knife is used, you will be
TWICE as likely to be stabbed as to be shot.
A quote from page 21: "When guns are present victims are less likely to
be injured than if the offender is armed with a knife or other weapon
because guns are often used to coerce the victim into compliance,
according to the NCS".
INTERESTING QUOTES
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Page 14: "The percentage of households touched by crime has declined over
the past 10 years ... from 32% of households [touched by crime] to 25% of
all households ... personal larceny from 16% to 12%, burglary from 8% to 5%.
Page 15: A beautiful picture (of a graph) showing the decline in per capita
homcides since 1980. For those that haven't plotted the stats in STATISTICS1-3,
you can see it right here.
FUTURE
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I'm still constructing a large database to try and use for disputing the
"gun control reduces gun crime" assertion.
--- end of statistics 4 ---
------Me and my dyslexic keyboard----------------------------------------------
Phil Ronzone Manager Secure UNIX [p k r] at [sgi.COM] {decwrl,sun}!sgi!pkr
Silicon Graphics, Inc. "I never vote, it only encourages 'em ..."
-----In honor of Minas, no spell checker was run on this posting---------------