From: [s--t--r] at [crl.com] (Edgar A. Suter) Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns Subject: DIRPP Newsletter Date: 1 May 1995 23:38:05 -0500 I hope that this newsletter is useful to the subscribers of these lists. You are all, of course, invited to correspond with your Representatives and the Committee members regarding the CDC issues contained. ************************************************************************* * Edgar A. Suter, MD [s--t--r] at [crl.com] * * Chair, DIRPP Doctors for Integrity in Research & Public Policy * ************************************************************************* May 1, 1995 Congratulations to several of our members. Henry Schaffer PhD (Biostatistician and Professor, Dept. of Genetics, North Carolina State University), George B. Murray MD (Director, Psychiatric Consultation Service, Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School), Edwin H. Cassem MD (Chief, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School), John Lattimer MD (Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons), and Lawrence Southwick PhD (Professor, School of Management, State University of New York, Buffalo) have joined in a blockbuster paper with Don Kates JD. The paper, "Guns and Public Health: Epidemic of Violence or Pandemic of Propaganda," will be published in the Spring 1995 issue of the University of Tennessee Law Review. The paper meticulously exposes not only the incompetent and intellectually dishonest research in the medical literature on guns and violence, but also documents outright prevarication. In the same issue are several pieces by other noted authors, including David Kopel JD (Research Director, Independence Institute) and Clayton Cramer. Clayton Cramer, noted author of "For the Defense of Themselves and the State: the Original Intent and Judicial Interpretation of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms," has a short piece on the racist roots of gun control. David Kopel's article concerns the data on "Right to Carry" reform Forthcoming in the William and Mary Law Review, Glenn Harlan Reynolds JD (Associate Professor of Law, University of Tennessee Law College) and Don Kates JD discuss the "states rights only" theory of the Second Amendment. This paper, "The Second Amendment and States Rights: A Thought Experiment," takes the "states rights only" theory and, according to the principles advanced by Dennis Henigan JD, the Legal Director of Handgun Control Inc., takes the theory to its logical conclusions - some very unpleasant surprises for the anti-self-defense lobby. Because these articles are seminal and have so many excellent references, I will be ordering reprints. We are also pleased that 39 of our members have co-authored a paper, "Violence in America - Effective Solutions," that will appear in the June 1995 issue of the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia. Miguel Faria MD, Editor, Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia, Professor of Surgery (Neurosurgery), and Professor of Medical History, Mercer University, William C. Waters IV, MD, an Atlanta nephrologist, and I are arranging a press conference in Atlanta on June 12 to publicize the article. We are working with our contacts in Washington DC to make this a joint press conference with a prominent spokesman from the Republican leadership representing the Atlanta area. Keep your fingers crossed. -------------------------------- GOODBYE, CDC! A favorable makeup of the Congress puts our goals within reach. This mailing addresses one of those goals: elimination of the CDC Division of Injury Prevention (along with it's politicians and junk scientists). The Republican leadership recognizes the politicized nature of CDC-sponsored research and that the CDC Division of Injury Prevention is an expensive duplication of programs in other Departments. For example, automobile safety is already studied by the Dept. of Transportation, farm injuries by the Dept. of Agriculture, work injuries by OSHA, and firearms violence is studied by the National Inst. of Justice. I expect to be invited to testify for the elimination of the CDC Division of Injury Prevention. My testimony will fall on more receptive ears if DIRPP members have "softened up" the Congress with information regarding the CDC's politicized science and wasteful duplication. Please help us end the bogus "public health" assault on our civil rights: 1) Please write to all the chairmen of the committees listed below. Please also write to all committee members representing your state. Once you have composed the brief text of your letter, using the "mail merge" function of your computer word processor makes easy work of this. If you have an academic or professional society appointment, please use that letterhead. Please focus on four demands - *** that the CDC Division of Injury Prevention must be eliminated. We cannot afford wasteful duplication, especially in these times of crippling budget deficits. *** that there be no more tax subsidies of politicized "junk science." You can cite the bias and flaws in Kellermann's work as examples. *** that current CDC oversight has failed, so Congress should institute a multi-disciplinary oversight committee - independent of the CDC - to ensure the competence and integrity of all tax funded research *** that, under Title 18, Section 1914 of the United States Code, CDC employees such as Mark Rosenberg MD and James Mercy PhD be investigated for possible illegal political lobbying while on-the-job. 2) Please send the same personalized letter to your state's two US Senators. If every DIRPP member does this, every committee member overseeing CDC funding and every US Senator will be contacted. 3) Please send a copy of your letter to your state and national professional societies, to the assignment editor of your local newspaper and to the editors of any periodicals to which you subscribe. 4) Please send me copies of all your letters so that I may display those letters when I testify. If you wish to cite examples of the CDC's junk science, you may refer to my "Guns in the Medical Literature - A Failure of Peer Review" article or any of Dr. Paul Blackman's excellent monographs. If you have not already done so, I suggest that you contact NRA/ILA, 11250 Waples Mill Road, Fairfax VA 22030, to order the following indispensable references: *** Blackman PH. Children and Firearms: Lies the CDC Loves. a paper presented to the American Society of Criminology. New Orleans, LA. November 4-7, 1992. *** Blackman PH. The Federal Factoid Factory on Firearms and Violence: A Review of CDC Research and Politics. a paper presented to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Chicago IL. March 8-12, 1994. *** Your dues are ESSENTIAL: If you have received this mailing, but have not mailed your 1995 dues in the amount of $100, please do so as soon as possible. Any additional contributions are, of course, always welcome. Thank you and Best regards, Edgar A. Suter MD National Chair, DIRPP 5201 Norris Canyon Road #140 San Ramon CA 94583-5405 FAX 510-277-1283 HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Rep. John E. Porter (R-IL), Chairman House Office Building, RH-2358 Washington, D.C. 20515 phone 202-225-3508 Republican C.W. Bill Young (R-FL) Henry Bonilla (R-TX) Ernest Jim Istook Jr. (R-OK) Dan Miller (R-FL) Jay Dickey (R-AR) Frank Riggs (R-CA) Roger Wicker (R-MS) Democrat David R. Obey (D-WI) ranking member Louis Stokes (D-OH) Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Nita M. Lowey (D-NY) HOUSE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE Subcommittee on Health and The Environment Rep. Michael Bilirakis (R-FL), Chairman Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Vice-Chairman House Office Bldg., RH-2125 Washington DC 20215 phone 202-225-2927 Republican Joe L. Barton (R-TX) Fred Upton (R-MI) Cliff Stearns (R-FL) Scott L. Klug (R-WI) Gary A. Franks (R-CT) James C. Greenwood (R-PA) Richard M. Burr (R-NC) Brian Bilbray (R-CA) Edward Whitfield (R-KY) Greg Ganske (R-IA) Charlie Norwood (R-GA) Tom Coburn (R-OK) Democrat Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), ranking member Sherrod Brown (D-OH) Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) Peter Deutsch (D-FL) Bart Stupak (D-MI) Ron Wyden (D-OR) Ralph M. Hall (D-TX) John Bryant (D-TX) Edolphus Towns (D-NY) Gerry E. Studds (D-MA) Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Chairman Senate Office Bldg., SD-136 Washington DC 20515 phone 202-224-7283 Republicans Arlen Specter (R-PA) Connie Mack (R-FL) Phil Gramm (R-TX) James M. Jeffords (R-VT) Judd Gregg (R-NH) Richard Shelby (R-AL) Democrat Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), ranking member Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) Tom Harkin (IA) Daniel K. Inouye (HI) Patty Murray (WA) Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) SENATE COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND HUMAN RESOURCES Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, (R-KS), Chairman Senate Office Bldg., SH-835 Washington DC 20515 phone 202-224-6770 Republicans James M. Jeffords (R-VT) Dan Coats (R-IN) Judd Gregg (R-NH) Bill Frist (R-TN) Mike DeWine (R-OH) John Ashcroft (R-MO) Spencer Abraham (R-MI) Slade Gordon (R-WA) Staff Director: Susan Hattan phone 202-224-6770 Democrats Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) Claiborne Pell (D-RI) Cristopher J. Dodd (D-CT) Paul Simon (D-IL) Tom Harkin (D-IA) Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD) Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) Paul D. Wellstone (D-MN) Minority Staff Director: Nick Littlefield phone not available