On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 19:44:23 GMT, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"John R. Carroll" wrote in message
news

FWIW,
The CDC, in what was called an "unusual moment of candor" recently
reported
that gun legislation does not have a statistically significant influence
on
gun crime in the US. If I can find the article I will post a link to it.

Well, that would be refreshing to see, John. If you happen upon it, I would
like to see it. But don't go out of your way for it.

Good lord Ed..I thought everyone had seen that one...

http://www.rense.com/general42/laws.htm

US Report Fails To Link
Gun Laws To Violent Crime
By Paul Simao
10-3-3


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

Critics of U.S. firearms laws, which are considered lax in comparison
with most other Western nations, have long contended that easy access
to guns helped to 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 health-care 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.

"[T]he Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas
because those people were religious nuts with guns.
Hell, this country was founded by religious nuts with guns.\
Who does Bill Clinton think stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock?
Peace Corps volunteers? Or maybe the people in Texas were attacked
because of child abuse. But, if child abuse was the issue,
why didn't Janet Reno tear-gas Woody Allen?
-- P.J. O'Rourke, speech at the Cato Institute, May 6, 1993