- Heart Disease: 614,348
- Cancer: 591,699
- Medical errors (malpractice): A 2018 Johns Hopkins study claims more than 250,000 people in the U.S. die every year from medical errors. Other reports claim the numbers to be as high as 440,000.
- Chronic lower respiratory disease: 147,101
- Accidents: 136,053
Under the rubric of ‘Gun Culture and Gun Policy’ Dr. Kennedy cites various polls; these are meaningless. First, we don’t know what questions that were asked or how the respondents were selected. (Please Google the terms ‘The Problems with Polls’) Second, should we poll the public on the right to religion, the right to free speech, or other rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights? The Left has been attacking free speech on college campuses for decades – please go to www.thefire.org.
Dr. Kennedy proposes many “reforms” that have already been debunked or which are canards:
- “Close gun sale loopholes”: There are no loopholes; dealers who sell at gun shows must have a Federal Firearm License, and the BATFE closely monitors this. Criminals get their guns by breaking into homes, gun stores, and even police cars, not to mention the black market.
- Fact: Only 0.7% of convicts bought their firearms at gun shows. 39.2% obtained them from illegal street dealers.
- Fact: Fewer than 1% of “crime guns” were obtained at gun shows. This is a reduction from a 1997 study that found 2% of guns used in criminal offenses were purchased at gun shows.
- Fact: The FBI concluded in one study that no firearms acquired at gun shows were used to kill police. “In contrast to media myth, none of the firearms in the study were obtained from gun shows.”
- Fact: Only 5% of metropolitan police departments believe gun shows are a problem.
- Fact: Only 3.5% of youthful offenders reported that they obtained their last handgun at a gun show.(See http://www.gunfacts.info/pdfs/gun-rfacts/7.1/Gun-Facts-7.1-screen.pdf.)
- “Ban the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines and military-style assault weapons”. Magazines that come with firearms normally hold as many as 20 rounds, and no true “assault weapons” (that permit automatic fire) are marketed to civilians. (See http://www.gunfacts.info/pdfs/gun-facts/7.1/Gun-Facts-7.1-screen.pdf.) FBI statistics show that in 2016 there were 274 murders committed with long guns. That same year 1,604 murders were committed using “knives or cutting instruments,”472 with “blunt objects (clubs, hammers, etc.),” and 659 with hands, fists, or feet.
- “Promote the safe storage of guns”: The experts at the National Rifle Association – since 1871,has been promoting gun safety, as do scores of other Second Amendment advocacy groups and gun dealers. Many firearm manufactures include free cable locks with each gun.
- “Close Internet loopholes”: All guns sold by dealers to individuals must go through a licensed FFL Dealer and FBI background check.
