GunLoon Myths: The Changing Numbers of Dr. Kellermann
When dealing with gunloons, you always have to understand the gunloon often hasn’t the faintest idea of what he is talking about. Whenever, you mention Dr. Arthur Kellermann, this ignorance tends to go into hyperdrive.
Kellermann is a CDC epidemiologist who has studied emergency cardiac care, injury prevention, healthcare and insurance, and firearm-related deaths and injuries. The latter issue causes gunloons to foam at the mouth.
Kellermann authored or co-authored some 50 peer-reviewed studies on firearm-related deaths or injuries. Several stand out and received a great deal of attention. One study in particular had two particular and distinct findings on different issues–this, of course, created great confusion among gunloons (like Thirdpower) who believes Kellermann has changed his numbers or findings.
The study measured whether a “firearm in the home confers protection against crime or, instead, increases the risk of violent crime in the home.” This study found “that keeping a gun in the home was strongly and independently associated with an increased risk of homicide (adjusted odds ratio, 2.7; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.6 to 4.4).” IOW, a gun in the home carries a nearly three times greater risk of homicide than a home without a firearm.
The other finding produced by the study found that people are 21 times more likely to be killed by someone they know than a stranger breaking into the house. IOW, gun-owning households saw an increased (21 times) murder risk by family or intimate acquaintances, not by strangers or non-intimate acquaintances.
Gunloons are usually confused by this, having never read the study, and will often attack Kellermann on the erroneous basis that Kellermann has revised his figures from 3 to 21 or vice-versa.
Then again, gunloons usually aren’t well-read and repeat the propaganda of their masters at the NRA.
