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Friday, November 9, 2018

Guns, the NRA, and "Staying In Your Lane"

Ok, I have a serious bone to pick with this, and it is not because it was posted the day before the shooting in a country and western bar in Southern California where there was armed security--shot first of course.  No, it is because a paid by the gun industry lobbying group that seeks to ensure that all guns be available to all people all the time thinks that the health of the population is not under the purview of physicians and scientists.  They decline to mention who should be at the table when talking about the health risks of guns, but it certainly should not be those who are trying to sell them.  It would be like the tobacco companies contesting that they should have been consulted before scientists published all that data showing that smoking kills you.  And asbestos makers were probably thinking they should be asked for input about how best to regulate asbestos.  But no, those who profit from the hazard are not part of the solution.  The NRA should follow its own advice and stay in their lane.
You can see why the NRA would try to obfuscate the issue.  The health risks of gun ownership are well established and stable.  If you own a gun you are ten times more likely to die by a gun than if you don't own a gun.  You are nine times more likely to die by suicide if you own a gun than if you don't own a gun.  These are undeniable facts.  You might argue that it is a self-contained problem, that those who choose to own guns are those who put themselves at higher risk.  Two problems with that.  One is that the gun owner is not the only one at risk, the household is also, and accidental shootings of children are the 4th leading cause of death.  So innocent bystanders are killed. Then there are the increasingly common mass shootings with assault weapons that are designed to kill people being used to do just that, kill people.  People who may not have taken on the risk of gun ownership are in those crowded public spaces.  And when people die from something at an increased rate,  that in fact falls into the realm of medicine.  Our lane.

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