Date: Sun, 9 Jul 1995 09:55:20 -0700 (PDT) From: "Edgar A. Suter" <[s--t--r] at [crl.com]> To: Multiple recipients of list <[n--b--n] at [mainstream.com]> Subject: Kellermann's "Home Invasion" study - a critique (fwd) Message-ID: <[Pine SUN 3 91 950709095421 20086 E 100000] at [crl5.crl.com]> ************************************************************************* * Edgar A. Suter, MD [s--t--r] at [crl.com] * * Chair, DIPR Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research, Inc.* ************************************************************************* Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research, Inc. Edgar A. Suter MD, National Chair 5201 Norris Canyon Road - Suite 140 San Ramon, CA 94583 USA Voice 510-277-0333 FAX 510-277-1283 June 26, 1995 George D. Lundberg, MD Editor, JAMA 515 North State Street Chicago, IL 60610 Re: Kellermann AL, Westphal L, Fischer L, and Harvard B. "Weapon Involvement in Home Invasion Crimes." JAMA. 1995; 273(22): 1759-62. Dear Dr. Lundberg, Kellermann's article[1] pretends to be a study of Home Invasion Crimes, but a majority (51%) of his cases were burglaries, crimes of stealth in which confrontation is avoided by the criminal (except in unarmed countries such as in Europe where, absent the general deterrent effect of widespread gun ownership, confrontations are frequent and rates of householder injuries from burglars are triple the US rates[2]) and in which guns are little expected to be actively used for protection.[3] He pretends to study the protective uses of guns, but his study is limited to situations little expected to be associated with the active, protective uses of guns. The successful protective uses of guns are not expected to end up in emergency rooms, police departments, or newspapers, but Kellermann's study included only 198 of the minority of Atlanta's crimes in which a police report was filed. Kellermann's cases excluded multi-family dwellings, the type of housing in which most of Atlanta's population resides. In so doing, he excluded the "projects" and apartment buildings in the poorer areas where crime is more rampant. His study excluded domestic abuse, sexual assault, and commercial armed robbery. In other words, Kellermann excluded the most important crimes inviting protective uses of guns.[4] He focused on a small sample skewed toward the failures of protection, those crimes that necessitated a police report. His study appears to have been shrewdly designed to avoid finding the protective benefits of guns - only the latest instance in a pattern of politicized research.[5] We anxiously await Kellermann's next study, perhaps a study of gun use in Quaker-on-Quaker crime. Even so, his current study confirms one of our most important observations, that guns are the safest and most effective means of protection[5,6,7] - further exposing the flaws in his earlier studies[5] claiming it is dangerous to use a gun for protection. Not one of Kellermann's gun defenders was injured. "Use of a firearm for self-defense is associated with a lower risk of injury than resistance by other means, but the implication of this finding is unclear."[1 (at 1762)] "Unclear"? - only to those struggling to deny the mounting evidence in the peer-reviewed literature that guns are the safest and most effective means of protection[5,6] and that 2.5 million Americans uses guns annually to protect themselves, their families, and their livelihoods.[7] Guns save lives, prevent injuries, reduce medical costs (because deaths and injuries are averted), and guns protect property.[6] Yours, Edgar A. Suter, MD, National Chair Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research, Inc. [1] Kellermann AL, Westphal L, Fischer L, and Harvard B. "Weapon Involvement in Home Invasion Crimes." JAMA. 1995; 273(22): 1759-62. [2] Kopel DB. The Samurai, The Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies? New York: Prometheus Press. 1992. [3] Kleck G. Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. 1991. [4] Kellermann A, Kleck G, and Suter EA. Letters to the Editor. Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia. June 1994; 83: 42-47. [5] Suter EA. "Guns in the Medical Literature - A Failure of Peer Review." Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia. March 1994; 83: 133-48. [6] Suter EA, Waters WC, Murray GB et al. "Violence in America - Effective Solutions." Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia. June 1995; 84: 253-63. [7] Kleck G and Gertz M. Armed resistance to crime: the prevalence and nature of self-defense with a gun. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology. Summer 1995: forthcoming.