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CDC Conducting Firearms Studies... Again? PDF Print E-mail
Written by Jeff Garvas   
Wednesday, 07 September 2005

Newschannel Five has a story about the Centers for Disease Control publishing the results of another study that creates more questions about their motives and results than anything else.

The study's state-by-state details can be found here. A similar can be found can be found in USA Today.

The study, published yesterday in the journal of Pediatrics, suggested that 2.5% of children live in homes with "loaded and unsecured firearms". While they admit this is a significant reduction from the estimates of 10% from fifteen years ago, authors of the study caution against "celebration".

We tend to celebrate when the CDC is proven wrong about gloom and doom firearms "estimates", since the department has a history of abusing finances to produce anti-gun propoganda. We celebrate just a little more when its the CDC admitting their were wrong, yet again. Ironically, the study proved a disturbing trend in Washington D.c. exists.

From the story:
    The study is based on a 2002 telephone survey of about 241,000 adults and is the first to provide data on gun storage in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, its authors said.

    Nationally, 33 percent of adults said they kept firearms in or around their home. The highest percentage was in Wyoming, where 63 percent said they had firearms. The lowest percentage was reported in the District of Columbia, where 5 percent reported having guns at home. The district has long-standing bans on handguns and semiautomatic weapons.
Notice how the story points out a ban on both "handguns" and semiautomatic "weapons", proving yet again that the news media doesn't know the difference.

However, assuming this information is accurante, five percent of the people called admitted to having "illegal" firearms in Washington D.C. It seems rather unusual that so many people would admit to such a crime to a random telephone solicitation from the health department. (The study is based on calls made by health departments)

Even more disturbing, the results prove that Washington D.C. residents are the least prepared to defend themselves and their families in comparison to the rest of the United States.

But what about the implication that loaded firearms shouldn't be near children?

From the same story:
    A little more than 4 percent of the respondents nationally said they keep guns loaded and unlocked, and 2.5 percent reported having loaded, unlocked firearms in homes where children lived.

    Alabama had the highest proportion -- 7.3 percent -- of homes in which children lived and guns were kept loaded and unlocked. The next highest states were Alaska (6.6 percent), Arkansas (6.6 percent), Montana (6.4 percent) and Idaho (5.2 percent). At bottom was Massachusetts, with 0.3 percent.
This information paints the picture that these children are in some form of perceived danger without revealing the facts. Is the CDC considering children anyone through their mid-twenties again? We know that the study probably didn't take into consideration how many of these households are made up of families that share the hunting tradition, and the education that comes along with it, with their children.

The simply statement that firearms and children are in the same house should not imply that accidents are "simply waiting to happen", but what other angle could the authors have possibly been looking for?

(Click 'READ MORE' to continue)



Safe Storage:

The "reasonable gun control" angle of this story becomes more clear once the foundation of fear is established: Not enough states are making safe storage mandatory, supposedly.

From the story:
    Eighteen states have laws dealing with proper storage of guns to limit access by children, says Jon Vernick, co-director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins University's school of public health. But the laws vary in strictness — 7 states make it a felony under some circumstances to give minors access to weapons — and they vary in the ages of kids covered, he says.

    There's little known about how well these laws are enforced, Vernick adds. "They're great, and we absolutely need more states with laws. But often they seem to get enforced after it's too late, when a child has shot himself or someone else."

    Two studies show accidental gun deaths and teen suicides decline in states with these laws, Vernick says.
Studies also show that making a non-biased program such as the Eddie Eagle series a mandated educational component, like the State of Florida has done, create significant reductions in accidental deaths caused by firearms. Jon Vernick himself admits above the very deficiencies of passing more gun laws: They're enforced after the fact, while mandated education is a tool of prevention.

Unfortunately, the "experts" are advising us yet again to leave our firearms stored in our homes unloaded, locked up, and separated from the ammunition. While this might be a very excellent safe storage plan for some gun owners, many own firearms for self-defense in the home, and a reasonable compromise to the "completely useless" strategy is warranted.
    Okoro said she hoped the survey results will be used by state public health officials as they work on intervention programs to prevent firearm deaths.

    About 1,400 children are killed by firearms each year, according to CDC estimates. It's not known how many of those are killed by guns left around the house, the researchers said.

    But they noted a study published in a February issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that showed safe gun storage may prevent deaths. The Seattle-based study found that in homes with guns, there were fewer incidents of shootings when guns were kept locked, unloaded and separated from ammunition.
Like most anti-gun studies and stories, this one ends leaving the reader with the fear that researchers just don't know exactly how many children die because guns are "left around the house", touches on leaving guns around the house in a completely unusuable manner, and hints that "public health officials" should use these results to further intervention programs.

What health professionals do with this information is attend hearings, like those held in Columbus when the latest Columbus Assault Weapons ban was being debated, and use the misleading and inconclusive information to sway an unsuspecting elected body that what rights they're about to take away in exchange for temporary safety are in the best interests of society as a whole.

Safe Storage is something that should be analyzed by EVERY responsible gun owner, period. It is your obligation to store your firearms, as well as educate your children, in such a manner that anything preventable can be prevented. Some may choose to take the CDC's advice and store all of their firearms in a manner where the ammunition and the firearms are completely inaccessible.

Common sense falls on the shoulders of the individual gun owner.

Passing more laws that make it a crime for a family with children to have defensive firearms readily available is simply unacceptable, and proven to be completely ineffective as a tool of prevention.