You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Pro RKBA article
- Thread starter Erik
- Start date
Guns Don't Kill 13 "Kids" A Day - Mike Rosen
Typically, people who are moved to write letters to the editor disagree with a columnist. The ones who agree usually just nod in approval and move on. Recently, I wrote a column methodically debunking the claim that guns in the home are 43 times more likely to kill a family member or friend than an intruder. It actually drew an approving response from one letter writer who asked that I also address the assertion that 13 children are killed with guns every day. I'd be happy to.
This is an old saw, oft repeated by anti-gun types and enthusiastically broadcast by the liberal media. People have heard it so many times, most probably believe it's true. It's not. As you might suspect, the statistic is contrived and distorted. It was last sighted in prominent statements by Bill and Hillary Clinton. Bill dusted it off and wheeled it out for an appearance on NBC's Today show on March 2 while lobbying for legislation to mandate trigger locks and smart guns. He insisted that "every single day there are 13 children who die from guns in this country." Hillary reprised the statistic on April 27 when she claimed that "every day in America we lose 13 precious children to gun-related violence."
Apparently, the original source is a 1997 study published by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). It found that 4,205 persons up to and including the age of 19 were killed in that year in firearm-related fatalities. Divide that number by 365, and you get an average of 11.5 per day. Somehow, the Clintons rounded that up to 13.
But the use of the term "children" is the most manipulative element of this emotionally charged claim. It conjures up images of thousands of 6-year-olds lying prostrate in a pool of blood, with a handgun alongside. My American Heritage Dictionary defines a "child" as "a person between birth and puberty ... An infant; a baby."
According to Yale University researcher John R. Lott Jr., fewer than 3 percent of young people killed by guns are under the age of 10. The great majority are virtually adults between the ages of 17 and 19, and most of those are gang members, not young children who are victims of household mishaps. "Trigger locks would do nothing to stop gang members from using guns," says Lott.
According to the actual NCHS data, 86 percent of all firearm-related fatalities among young people was in the age group between 15-19. Of those, about a third — 1,135 of 3,576 — were suicides. Tougher gun laws wouldn't prevent those intent on committing suicide from using some other means.
If you confine the field to just those 14 years of age and younger — a more accurate notion of what we think of as "children" — the numbers are much less dramatic (which is precisely why Bill, Hillary and gun-control advocates in general use the broader definition). Instead of 4,205 firearm-related fatalities in 1997, the number drops to 629. Eliminating suicides, it's down to 502. That comes to 1.4 per day, a far cry from 13. This is still disturbing, and every one of those deaths remains a personal tragedy, but it's not nearly as sensational a figure to throw around for purposes of inflaming public opinion.
The Second Amendment, like the other articles in our Bill of Rights, is not absolute. There are reasonable arguments to be made for some restrictions on the personal possession and sale of firearms and other weapons. A compromise will surely be struck between the intractable positions of gun-rights hard-liners and would-be gun-confiscating zealots. Some of the gun-rights people may tend toward paranoia, but at least they believe what they say. When anti-gun propagandists willfully spread bogus statistics, it undermines what remains of their credibility.
I recognize that gun-controllers instinctively seek to influence public opinion through appeals to emotions, but they shouldn't have to lie in the process.
Mike Rosen's radio show airs daily from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA.
[This message has been edited by Erik (edited May 17, 2000).]
Typically, people who are moved to write letters to the editor disagree with a columnist. The ones who agree usually just nod in approval and move on. Recently, I wrote a column methodically debunking the claim that guns in the home are 43 times more likely to kill a family member or friend than an intruder. It actually drew an approving response from one letter writer who asked that I also address the assertion that 13 children are killed with guns every day. I'd be happy to.
This is an old saw, oft repeated by anti-gun types and enthusiastically broadcast by the liberal media. People have heard it so many times, most probably believe it's true. It's not. As you might suspect, the statistic is contrived and distorted. It was last sighted in prominent statements by Bill and Hillary Clinton. Bill dusted it off and wheeled it out for an appearance on NBC's Today show on March 2 while lobbying for legislation to mandate trigger locks and smart guns. He insisted that "every single day there are 13 children who die from guns in this country." Hillary reprised the statistic on April 27 when she claimed that "every day in America we lose 13 precious children to gun-related violence."
Apparently, the original source is a 1997 study published by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). It found that 4,205 persons up to and including the age of 19 were killed in that year in firearm-related fatalities. Divide that number by 365, and you get an average of 11.5 per day. Somehow, the Clintons rounded that up to 13.
But the use of the term "children" is the most manipulative element of this emotionally charged claim. It conjures up images of thousands of 6-year-olds lying prostrate in a pool of blood, with a handgun alongside. My American Heritage Dictionary defines a "child" as "a person between birth and puberty ... An infant; a baby."
According to Yale University researcher John R. Lott Jr., fewer than 3 percent of young people killed by guns are under the age of 10. The great majority are virtually adults between the ages of 17 and 19, and most of those are gang members, not young children who are victims of household mishaps. "Trigger locks would do nothing to stop gang members from using guns," says Lott.
According to the actual NCHS data, 86 percent of all firearm-related fatalities among young people was in the age group between 15-19. Of those, about a third — 1,135 of 3,576 — were suicides. Tougher gun laws wouldn't prevent those intent on committing suicide from using some other means.
If you confine the field to just those 14 years of age and younger — a more accurate notion of what we think of as "children" — the numbers are much less dramatic (which is precisely why Bill, Hillary and gun-control advocates in general use the broader definition). Instead of 4,205 firearm-related fatalities in 1997, the number drops to 629. Eliminating suicides, it's down to 502. That comes to 1.4 per day, a far cry from 13. This is still disturbing, and every one of those deaths remains a personal tragedy, but it's not nearly as sensational a figure to throw around for purposes of inflaming public opinion.
The Second Amendment, like the other articles in our Bill of Rights, is not absolute. There are reasonable arguments to be made for some restrictions on the personal possession and sale of firearms and other weapons. A compromise will surely be struck between the intractable positions of gun-rights hard-liners and would-be gun-confiscating zealots. Some of the gun-rights people may tend toward paranoia, but at least they believe what they say. When anti-gun propagandists willfully spread bogus statistics, it undermines what remains of their credibility.
I recognize that gun-controllers instinctively seek to influence public opinion through appeals to emotions, but they shouldn't have to lie in the process.
Mike Rosen's radio show airs daily from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA.
[This message has been edited by Erik (edited May 17, 2000).]