REPLY
Firearm Injury Prevention
Jack Ginsburg, MPE
1 November 1998 | Volume 129 Issue 9 | Pages 751-752
IN RESPONSE:
The ACP-ASIM contends that gun violence and the prevention of firearms injuries must be dealt with not only as a criminal justice issue but also as a high-priority public health issue. This approach emphasizes the prevention of avoidable deaths and injuries, not the net balance of legitimate versus criminal uses of guns. Recognizing Second Amendment rights, ACP-ASIM advocates some restrictions on firearms, not a complete ban, to assure that guns are used safely and appropriately. Analyses of the recent study by Lott and Mustard, which suggests that there is a deterrent effect on crime, reveal that the study was biased, reflected inappropriate assumptions, and drew erroneous conclusions [1, 2]. It omitted key variables, such as changes in poverty and the effects of other crime-fighting measures; had statistical modeling problems; used arrests rates rather than crime rates; and failed to account for crime cycles. The accuracy of claims of defensive uses of guns has also been challenged as being much exaggerated [3, 4].
The Bureau of Justice Statistics urged caution in interpreting its victimization data, noting that "many aspects of crimes-including victim and offender characteristics, crime circumstances and offender intent-contribute to the victims' injury outcome" [5]. These data did not differentiate between police and civilians, although trained police might have a better chance of successful self-defense with a firearm than would civilians. Having a loaded, concealed handgun may not be much help in the 35% of violent crimes in which the offender also has a firearm but rather could cause more disputes to escalate into fatal confrontations and increase risks to the owner and his or her family of accidental injury, homicide, and suicide.
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Author and Article Information
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American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine; Washington, DC 20006
1. Black D, Nagin D. Do "right to carry" laws reduce violent crime? Journal of Legal Studies. [In press].
2. Webster DW. The claims that right-to-carry laws reduce violent crime are unsubstantiated. The Jophns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. 1997.
3. Ludwig J. Concealed-gun-carrying laws and violent crime: evidence from state panel data. International Review of Law and Economics. [In press].
4. Cook PJ, Ludwig J, Hemenway D. The gun debate's new mythical number: how many defensive uses per year? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 1997; 16:463-9.
5. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Guns and Crime: Handgun Victimization, Firearm Self-Defense, and Firearm Theft (1987-92). April 1994, NCJ-147003.
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