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What the Anti-Gunners are saying (AND DOING!!).
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
'Dealing with Vitriolic Emails after a Study's Publication'
David Hemenway
The acerbic e-mails began a few days after HSPH's David Hemenway published "Firearm Availability and Female Homicide Victimization Rates among 25 Populous High Income Countries" in the Journal of the American Medical Women's Association (JAMWA) last month. The paper caught the attention of a small group of people, many of whom peppered Hemenway with sometimes unsigned and often scathing, insulting e-mails.
"Way to go genius," wrote one person, who did not identify him or herself beyond the initials `RR.' "Learn to read what you read, instead of reading what you want to read, and you'll realize you're an idiot."
The JAMWA experience reveals a side of scientific publishing not often spoken about-one where a researcher is personally targeted because of a study's results. In Hemenway's case, he received e-mails from advocates of gun ownership.
Hemenway was lead author of the JAMWA study, which found that 70 percent of all women murdered in industrialized nations are American. Furthermore, the study said that US women are 11 times more likely to die from a firearm injury than women in other wealthy countries. In a press release that accompanied the study's publication, Hemenway pointed out that a cross-sectional study such as his cannot prove causation. Nevertheless, the study results are consistent with others that indicate a gun is an important risk factor for female homicide.
"It's hard to believe that no one had looked at this before," said Hemenway. "Seventy percent is an astounding figure."
News of the JAMWA study triggered two dozen e-mails to Hemenway, many similar to the tone of "RR."
He has distanced himself objectively from the personal attacks.
"People get very emotional about gun-related issues," he said. "They end up getting angry at the messenger."
He added, "What's strange is that none of the people seemed concerned with what the study is saying-that American women are at an exceptionally high risk of death. Nobody said, `Gee, this is terrible' or `What should be done?'"
Hemenway said the e-mails would concern him more if they were from scientists or professionals offering legitimate criticisms. He did respond to two of the 24 e-mails because they raised what Hemenway considered thoughtful questions.
Most of the e-mails were from people whom Hemenway believes didn't bother to actually read his study before writing to him. The writers, instead of citing his paper, generally referred to a column about the study by Wendy McElroy of FOXNews.com that opened, "It is rare for a prestigious institution to nakedly compromise its research integrity to promote a political agenda."
Gun issues have long been controversial in the US. Last week, the Justice Department, headed by Attorney General John Ashcroft, stirred debate when reversing a well-established position that the Second Amendment protects gun-ownership rights only with respect to the ability of states to form militias. Now, the Justice Department is interpreting the amendment more broadly to protect the rights of individuals to own guns, regardless of state militia needs.
Hemenway said he is not "anti-gun."
"I don't have a big interest in guns one way or the other," he said. "Nor do I believe that either banning guns or promoting increased gun ownership are good policies. I am interested in injury prevention, and as far as fatal and very serious injuries in this country are concerned, guns play an important role in the overall picture."
Hemenway began researching injury control in the 1970s, beginning with fire safety issues. He has investigated motor vehicle safety, falls and fractures, child abuse and suicide. He is director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center (HICRC) and co-director of the Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center.
Gun-related studies have interested him over the past few years because of a dearth of knowledge in the field.
"There hasn't been enough good research about guns because there is not enough funding or good data out there," said Hemenway.
Hemenway and his colleagues have strived to fill in the data gaps. Since 1998, they have worked on more than two dozen articles about gun-related issues, including papers about guns on college campuses and public opinions about firearms. Hemenway has finished a draft of a book tentatively entitled Private Guns, Public Health.
Last year, HICRC established the National Violent Injury Statistics System, a pilot program to build a national reporting system to guide violence prevention efforts. The center is coordinating efforts of many sites around the country. Data is currently being collected on a prototype for a National Violent Death Reporting System that, when fully implemented, will provide consistent, comparable and detailed information on all suicides and homicides in this country.
The expectation is that the federal government will use the pilot as a model to create a full national system involving every state.
Hemenway finds gun-related research exciting because each finding can break new ground in an under-researched field. Even the controversies provide research material.
"The subject matter is so contentious, and you have people on both sides saying things with no evidence to support them," said Hemenway. "Listening to all the claims provides many research ideas."
And plenty of e-mails.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/now/
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Edited by - Josey1 on 05/24/2002 06:27:57
Comments
Group hopes his record will be issue during race
By Ivan Penn
Sun Staff
Originally published May 23, 2002
Gun control advocates are hoping to make Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s record on firearms legislation a key issue in the governor's race, beginning with a rally today outside his campaign headquarters.
Members of Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse and others say that Ehrlich, the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate, has acted much like a spokesman for the National Rifle Association with his longtime opposition to tougher gun laws.
They point to his vote as a state delegate against a bill to ban Saturday-night specials, and a later vote in Congress to repeal a national assault weapons ban.
"He's not at all about preventing gun crime," said Ginni Wolf, executive director of MAHA and an organizer of today's rally. "His stance is the NRA stance."
But Ehrlich says he and such critics have a philosophical disagreement on how to address gun violence. While gun control advocates want more restrictions on gun use, he says he wants to punish the illegal use of guns.
"My focus has always been on keeping guns out of the hands of criminals," Ehrlich said. "We all want the same thing. How we get there is very different. They simply don't like guns."
Democrats hope his position will hurt him in the governor's race because polls have shown that most Marylanders favor tougher gun laws. Gun control will likely be debated in a campaign in which Ehrlich and Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend have sharply differing views.
Michael Morrill, a spokesman for Townsend, declined to make the lieutenant governor available for comment for this article, saying she was not associated with today's rally. But he said she strongly supports Maryland's ban on Saturday-night specials and the state and federal bans on assault weapons.
As part of Gov. Parris N. Glendening's administration, Townsend has been a vocal advocate for gun control as a prevention tool. In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans almost 2 to 1, that position has been well received.
"Maryland with its progressive tendencies must be considered one of the most pro-gun control states in the country," said pollster Keith Haller of Potomac Inc. "The NRA is not a well-liked organization in Maryland."
Wolf and other gun control advocates want to publicize Ehrlich's record. Three weeks ago, they sent him a letter asking him to state his current position on gun control and to renounce his support of the NRA.
The letter criticized his 1988 vote in the General Assembly against legislation that banned handguns collectively known as Saturday-night specials or "junk guns" -- names for small, inexpensive handguns of low quality.
Banning such guns helped prevent 40 homicides a year from 1990 to 1998, according to a study by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.
Wolf and others also criticize Ehrlich for lobbying in 1994 against Maryland legislation that led to the state ban on assault-style weapons. And in 1996, he voted in favor of a bill that sought to repeal the federal ban on the sale, manufacture and possession of certain semiautomatic assault weapons.
"Bob Ehrlich is a pro-gun extremist," said Vincent DeMarco, a former executive director of MAHA.
In a two-page response to the letter questioning his gun record, Ehrlich said he has always opposed "the so-called 'gun bans.'"
"Frankly, they do little if anything to keep guns out of the hands of people determined to harm and kill others," he wrote. Instead, Ehrlich said, he has emphasized responsible gun ownership, gun safety and restricting access to guns.
He said he supports encouraging the use of gun locks; conducting full background checks on all gun purchasers, including those at gun shows; banning the sale of high-capacity magazines; and restricting juveniles' access to guns.
Ehrlich said he wants Maryland to implement the "Project Exile" program, a federal initiative that denies bail and plea bargains to certain armed criminals and sentences them to mandatory prison terms. The program has won praise from gun control advocates and the NRA.
The lieutenant governor is taking a different tack. Townsend, who pushed for the Saturday-night-special ban as a gun control advocate and for tougher gun control laws in the Glendening administration, is focusing on restricting gun access. "Her first priority is the vigorous enforcement of those laws on the books," Morrill said.
Under the Glendening administration, Townsend was a vocal advocate of the 1996 legislation that limits handgun purchases in Maryland to one a person a month and the Responsible Gun Safety Act of 2000.
That law contains some of the nation's toughest gun provisions, including a requirement that manufacturers equip handguns with built-in trigger locks. It requires firearms makers to provide ballistic information about each handgun to state police to help them solve crimes.
Copyright c 2002, The Baltimore Sun
http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.guns23may23.story
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
WASHINGTON - (Reuters) - Two Democrats who usually have opposing views on gun control, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York and Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, said on Wednesday they had teamed up to back new legislation designed to force states to fill in gaps in gun purchase background records.
McCarthy, whose husband was killed by a deranged gunman on the Long Island Rail Road in a 1993, is a leading congressional voice for stricter gun control. Dingell, breaking with many fellow Democrats, generally has been an ardent foe.
But in legislation they will formally unveil on Thursday, the two call for states to improve the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, known as NICS, by forcing both states and federal agencies to provide the FBI with all relevant records, including mental health records and records of domestic violence convictions. Those records can be utilized when instant checks are done on gun purchases.
Their bill is called "Our Lady of Peace Act," for a church in McCarthy's district where a mentally ill man killed a priest and parishioner during Mass last March. It would allow federal grants to states worth about $250 million for each of the next three years.
The legislation does not address larger issues that have separated McCarthy and Dingell, such as requiring background checks of up to three days at gun shows. However, a summary of the bill notes that improving the NICS data base will speed up background checks, reducing delays for law-abiding gun buyers. http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/politics/3316477.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By JOHN KOZIOL
Staff Writer
LACONIA - A public hearing will be held in two weeks to give city residents a chance to voice their opinion on the proposal to create a gun-free zone during Bike Week.
On June 5, the City Council will hold the hearing on what is formally known as An Ordinance Amending Chapter 139 Emergencies and Chapter 145 Firearms.
The hearing is scheduled to take place at 6:30 p.m. in Room 200A in City Hall.
It is expected that the council, after taking public input, will give a first reading to the ordinance and then meet again on June 6, for the second, final reading, City Manager Eileen Cabanel said Wednesday.
The ordinance would take effect immediately.
Under Chapter 139, a paragraph concerning the "creation of temporary gun free zones which shall prohibit the carrying, possession and transportation of firearms by any person other than duly sworn local, county, state or federal law enforcement officers" would be added.
The ordinance, which would be in effect from 4 p.m. June 7 to 4 p.m. June 16, would also amend Chapter 145 to note the "substantial governmental interests and compelling public safety reasons for creating temporary restrictions on the possession of firearms to deter gun-related violence during Motorcycle Week."
If approved by the council, the ordinance would forbid anyone from carrying a located or unloaded pistol, revolver, or firearm - whether open or concealed, licensed or unlicensed - on any public way north of Elm Street an east of and including Parade Road.
The prohibition would also extend to private property operating under a temporary Motorcycle Week license issued by the state or the city, such as a beer tent, vending booth, temporary campground, or temporary parking lot, or within "100 feet of those licensed locations."
Violators would have their firearms confiscated for the duration of the gun-free zone and also face a fine up to $1,000.
The gun-free zone has been a popular topic of conversation in Laconia since Police Chief William Baker first introduced the idea last week.
Mayor Mark Fraser confirmed that the City Council did meet in non-public session on Tuesday evening to consider the draft language and that the gun-free zone was the "one item" among the several that the city has been looking at to make Bike Week 2002 safe "that can be discussed publicly" at this time.
City officials have been concerned that Bike Week could be marred by the same violence that has touched other parts of the country following the reported collapse of a truce among motorcycle clubs.
Laconia is home to the New Hampshire chapter of the Hells Angels, and Baker has been working to stave off any potential clashes between the club and its rivals.
Wednesday's release of the proposed gun-free zone ordinance coincides with the city Licensing Board's rejection of 11 Bike Week vendor applications from the Hells Angels and the filing of a lawsuit by the club in Belknap County Superior Court to reverse the board's decision.
Baker, who also serves on the Licensing Board, had attempted to strike a compromise with the Hells Angels to restrict the number and location of the club's vendors during Bike Week, but the club said no.
The police chief's rationale in seeking the compromise, he has said, was to make the Hells Angels less of a target during Bike Week while also protecting the public.
Fraser said in addition to discussing the gun-free zone and other proposals, the council has also talked recently about what the city would do "if something occurs" during Bike Week, and "what will be the city's response and how will we handle that."
John Koziol can be reached by calling 524-3800 ext. 5940 or by e-mail at jkoziol@citizen.com
http://www.fosters.com/citizen/news2002/May/23/lac0523d.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
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