Accidental gun deaths have been decreasing yearly since statistics were first being kept. Fact:Firearm misuse causes only a small number of accidental deaths in the U.S. (495 in 2016). For example, compared to being accidentally killed by a firearm, you are:
- Five times more likely to burn to death
- Five times more likely to drown
- 17 times more likely to be poisoned
- 17 times more likely to fall to your death, and
- 68 times more likely to die in an automobile accident.
(See http://www.gunfacts.info/pdfs/gun-facts/7.1/Gun-Facts-7.1-screen.pdf.)
If Dr. Kennedy was truly concerned about elders, which is the focus of ASA, then she would be much more focused on:
1) Seeking ways to reduce the deaths caused by medical malpractice, not to mention the millions of injuries, and
2) Seeking to protect elders from criminal attacks. From 2003 to 2013 rates of nonfatal violent crime against the elderly increased 27 percent, from 3.4 to 4.4 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 65 or older (Source: CrimeInAmerica.net)
Sincerely,
Warren Lind, MA, MSW, LCSW
[And, following, the editor’s reply:]
Hello, Warren,
We had received, in mid-Oct., your blog submission. We are unable to publish this for the following reasons:
– this has been written with the inclusion of an author who is not an ASA member; all blog submissions must be authored solely by ASA members.
– this piece has unsubstantiated narrative, which needs more accurate research/resources/references to back up the narrative.
– this piece does not include any resource information that our professional membership can use in their work to serve and support older adults and their families; this is a must for inclusion in AgeBlog (see attached guidelines).
If you would like to either rework this as a “resource piece” or submit a short Letter to the Editor (no more than 350 words), authored by you, we will consider either submission.
Thank you, Warren, for your support of ASA.
Regards,
Alison Hood
[We contemplated revising our response to meet Ms. Hood’s requirements. It was easy to delete my name, as I had actually contributed very little. Yet there is nothing “unsubstantiated” in Mr. Lind’s detailed response, and it has gobs of “resource information” referenced that would give ASA’s membership authoritative data about the real issues in “gun violence” and prevention. It became obvious we would be wasting our time once we realized that the original article she was happy to publish in Aging Today/AgeBlog did not meet Hood’s standards itself.
Mr. Lind continues to fight the good fight by writing for rational publications in the Midwest and responding to wrong-headed articles in other media. We thank him for sharing his good work.]
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— DRGO Editor Robert B. Young, MD is a psychiatrist practicing in Pittsford, NY, an associate clinical professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.
All DRGO articles by Robert B. Young, MD
