Implicit in a Feb 6 post, “LADIES PLEASE conceal and carry” [FN1] is handguns “work” as a means of self-defense. Before you [FN2] buy a weapon lethal to you or a loved one, you should research guns and alternatives for self-defense. “Let the people know the facts...”1/10

Peer reviewed studies of gun violence as health risk were prevented, as a practical matter, from 1996 to 2022. The NRA paid for members of Congress to block funding of such studies [FN3] by NIH [FN4] and CDC. [FN5] The NRA wanted to stop studies, like a major study in 1993:  2/10

A gun in the home was associated with a nearly threefold increase in the odds someone would be killed at home by a family member or intimate acquaintance. [FN6] There is no reason to believe merchants of one category of death are more truthful than another. [FN7] 3/10

There is another danger guns pose. Over half of gun deaths in 2022 were suicides. [FN8] Paul Nestadt, assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University discredits a “myth that suicide is this carefully considered thing.” Survivors: 75% tried w/in an hour of decision. 4/10

And 25% tried within five minutes of the decision. People use what they have available. Lying in bed at two in the morning, you reach for what you have in your bedside drawer. If that’s a bottle of Tylenol, the survival rate is 98% ... Firearms ... have a 90% fatality rate.” [FN9] But... 5/10

A “good guy” w/a gun can stop a bad guy. In Greenwood in 2022 a “highly trained” bystander stopped the gunman. If you want to become that highly trained, great, but three people still died. [FN10] So, PEOPLE PLEASE: research the issue.  6/10

Footnotes:
FN1. Next Door Neighbor, 02/06/24, emphasis in original.
FN2. I do not limit this blog to a specific sex or gender.
FN3. The “Dickey” Amendment stated that “none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the [CDC] may be used to advocate or promote gun control.” (P.L. 104-208) 7/10

Footnotes:
FN4. National Institutes of Health.
FN5. Centers for Disease Control.
FN6. E.g., Kellerman, et al, “Gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home,” New England J of Medicine 329 (15) 1084-91 (1993).  8/10

Footnotes:
FN7. Tobacco companies knew for decades cigarettes increase smokers’ risks of cancer, heart disease & emphysema. In 1964, the Surgeon General’s report came out and 42% of U.S. adults smoked. By 2012, 18% smoked. See, NPR, “50 years after landmark warning, 1/7/14.  9/10

Footnotes:
FN8. Beckett, “The majority of US gun deaths are suicides. Here’s how to prevent them” The Guardian, 11/20/23.
FN9: Id.
FN10. Fawcett, "Bystander Killed Gunman 2 Minutes Into Indiana Mall Shooting". The New York Times, 7/18/22. 10/10