U.S. report fails to link gun laws to violent crime

File under "Where's there's a will, there's a way," or "Wishing so ain't
gonna make it happen."

www.reutershealth.com; Health eLine, 10/2/03
U.S. report fails to link gun laws to violent crime

Last Updated: 2003-10-02 16:24:12 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Paul Simao

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A report published by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention on Thursday found no conclusive evidence that gun
control laws help prevent violent crime, suicides or accidental injuries
in the United States.

Critics of U.S. firearms laws, which are considered lax compared with
those in most other Western nations, have long contended that easy
access to guns have helped fuel comparatively high U.S. rates of murder
and other violent crimes.

Gun control is a perennial hot political issue in the United States,
which reported 28,663 gun-related deaths in 2000, the latest year for
which complete data are available. Firearms were the second leading
cause of injury-related death that year.

But a national task force of healthcare and community experts found
"insufficient evidence" that bans on specific guns, waiting periods for
gun buyers and other such laws changed the incidence of murder, rape,
suicide and other types of violence.

The findings were based on 51 studies, some partly funded by the CDC, of
gun laws enacted in the mid-1970s and later.

Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Health
Department and head of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services,
said the studies were marked by unreliable data, inappropriate analysis
and inconsistent findings, making it impossible to determine the true
effectiveness of gun laws.

"WE DON'T KNOW"

"This means that we don't know what effects, if any, a law has on the
outcome," Fielding said in a conference call. "We don't mean it has no
effect, and that's why it's important to do more studies."

One study found that the 1994 Brady Bill, which required a five-day
waiting period for handgun purchases until 1998 when a computerized
checking system was introduced, significantly cut the rate of
gun-related suicides in those under the age of 55.

Several other studies, however, suggested that such declines were
accompanied by smaller increases in suicide by other means.

Officials with the National Rifle Association, a gun rights group that
has accused the Atlanta-based CDC in the past of having an anti-gun
slant, were not immediately available for comment on the report.

The CDC, a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human
Services, is prohibited from using funds to promote gun control. HHS,
however, is determined to reduce the rate of firearms-related deaths by
about two-thirds by 2010.

There are an estimated 200 million privately held rifles, handguns and
other firearms in the United States, which guarantees the right to bear
arms in its constitution.

Approximately 4.5 million new firearms, including two million handguns,
are sold each year in the nation. Secondhand firearms account for an
additional 2 million to 4.5 million transactions annually.

JG

If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the
police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our
rulers. Only the government --and a few outlaws. I intend to be among
the outlaws. --Edward Abbey