From: [v--c--t] at [cad.gatech.edu] (Vincent Fox)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: USA TODAY: guns are health problem
Date: 4 Apr 1994 19:46:25 -0400

DECISIONLINE: Health
USA TODAY Update
April 4, 1994
Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network

A day just wouldn't be complete without some USA TODAY gun factoids:

NUMBERS SHOW GUNS' TOLL:
   The USA had more than 38,000 firearm-related deaths in 1991.
Nearly half were suicides; 46 percent were homicides; the rest
were accidental shootings, says the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. The firearm death rate for African Americans 15-34
was three times the automobile death rate. Gun injuries are the
second leading cause of death, behind auto crashes, for people 10
to 34.
(For more, see special Firearms package below.)

[When did the CDC become the darling for providing crime figures?
 I thought the FBI, DoJ, etc were the recognized primary sources.
 Note the horrible auto death rates was not given for comparison.]

*snip*

SPECIAL PACKAGE ON FIREARMS:

GUNSHOTS COST $20.4 BILLION:
   The cost of gunshot injuries in 1990 was about $20.4 billion.
Included: Medical treatment, rehabilitation and loss of potential
income of those who die. The cost of treating someone injured by a
high-powered firearm ranges from $15,000 to $20,000. Intensive
care may cost as much as $150,000. Because many gunshot victims
are poor, most of the expense is passed onto taxpayers.

GUN STATISTICS DISPUTED:
   Statistics on gun-related violence and treatment costs "aren't
true. There is a fringe of physicians who are deliberately making
it up," says Dr. Miguel Faria Jr., editor of the Journal of the
Medical Association of Georgia. In the March issue, Faria says for
every life lost to gunfire, 75 may have been saved by people who
had armed themselves for self defense.

[What the...? This must have slipped by the editors. Or perhaps
 they feel they must allow beer-swilling, gun-lobby-owned, evil NRA dupes
 to make a worthless statement once in a blue moon for "balance".
 Note: sarcasm intended :) ]

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
   Figures come from the National Center for Health Statistics at
the Centers for Disease Control, the American Academy of
Pediatrics, the Journal of the American Medical Association,
Health Affairs magazine. For more information, write: National
Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease
Control, MS K60, 4770 Buford Highway, Atlanta, Ga. 30341-3724.
(End of package.)

-- 
 "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere,
  diagnosing it incorrectly and then applying the wrong remedies." - G. Marx