What Researchers Learned About Gun Violence Before Congress Killed Funding

[nonoyes]

7. Actually, there is a rebuttal the "debunking" done by NRA

Criticisms of the study

Pro-gun advocates have raised a number of objections to this survey. The following are actual arguments taken from the Internet and the NRA: (5)

1. "99.8 percent of the protective uses of guns do not involve homicides," says Paul Blackman of the NRA. Defensive gun uses include waving the weapon, firing warning shots, wounding the intruder, etc.

It is simply untrue that researchers cannot measure the nonfatal protective benefits of firearms, or that Kellermann's survey failed to detect such a benefit. If firearms deter, scare away or wound intruders, then the murder victimization rate of gun owners should be lower than non-gun owners. The absence of a gun in the home would have been recognized as a murder risk, rather than the presence of a gun.

Conclusion

The Kellermann study is valid, if incomplete -- as any study must necessarily be. More research needs to be done on other possible variables contributing to the murder rate, although Kellermann has apparently identified the most important ones. The results could be refined by determining the severity of some factors, like criminal background. And it would be good to reconfirm the honesty of the respondents' answers. But the study itself is sound, and gun-control advocates can use it with confidence.

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-kellermann.htm

This rather lengthy analysis, available on-line at the above site, reviews each and every objection made by the NRA folks, and also deals with their failure to understand the logic of the factual material presented and the NRA's inability to understand multivariate analysis used in modern epidemiology.

Lastly: since we have an "epidemc" of drunk driving and fatal accidents, we actually do epidemiological studies of such with federal dollars, intended to advocate or promote responsible drinking and driving seemingly with no objection from the liguor and bar and restaurant industy. Why is it only that research into the epidemiology of gun fatalities is prohibited by Congress, even up until today?