By Lee Williams
More than 1 million Americans were killed by firearms from 1990 to 2021, and firearm deaths increased markedly during the pandemic, according to a study published Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association network titled: “Trends and Disparities in Firearm Fatalities in the United States, 1990-2021.”
Firearm deaths reached their lowest point in 2004, and then increased more than 45% by 2021 – a 28-year high – the study claims. Black males were most at risk for homicide, and white males over 70 had the highest suicide rates.
The authors analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and used “key statistics” from the anti-gun group Brady United.
Despite its flaws, such as a reliance on biased statistics and a lack of causal factors, the report has been embraced by the legacy media and has proliferated across the internet.
The authors’ conclusion was rather simple: “This study found marked disparities in firearm fatality rates by demographic group, which increased over the past decade. These findings suggest that public health approaches to reduce firearm violence should consider underlying demographic and geographic trends and differences by intent.”
The study’s lead author, Dr. Eric W. Fleegler of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Pediatrics, has written numerous anti-gun studies and editorials in the past. Gun rights experts were quick to point out there was a lot missing from his most recent work.
“These figures are revealing for what the study doesn’t speak about – that is the sharp rise of deaths associated with the criminal misuse of firearms. We see that firearm ownership rose steadily throughout the timeframe isolated by the study’s authors and deaths by firearms dropped through 2004, even as firearm ownership steadily grew. We have witnessed a marked increase of crime over the last several years, as has been reported by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. However, that wasn’t included in this this study’s findings,” said National Shooting Sports Foundation spokesman Mark Oliva.
“During that time of increased crime, we have also witnessed ‘woke’ prosecutors that won’t hold criminals to account for their crimes, no-bail policies that have put criminals back onto the streets within hours of committing crimes and a denigration of law enforcement by election officials pushing policies to defund police. That was echoed just this weekend when Senator Chris Murphy threated to strip local law enforcement of federal funds unless they adopted his gun control agenda. Crime is law enforcement issue and must be addressed as such. There is no inoculation or remedial medication that prevents criminals from committing their heinous acts,” Oliva said.
“Anti-gun outlets love to report that ‘gun deaths’ of whichever kind increase, let alone reach some new record relevant to other years. But the reason is the socially chaotic past 2 years, 2020-21, with COVID, BLM protests and riots, increasing crime with soft DA’s and police leaving the profession due to the disrespect those entail,” said Robert B. Young, MD of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership. “Here’s a usually anti-gun doctor researcher, Fleegler, who’s trying to make a point that gun deaths over 32 years approach the great loss of life we’ve seen from COVID. The message is actually the reverse: compared to illnesses, especially COVID, gun deaths are relatively insignificant.”
Amy Hunter, spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association, also pointed out that soft-on-crime policies, not guns, were responsible for the deaths, a fact missing from Fleegler’s report.
“Crime rates are soaring. We see that not only in news headlines, but also in neighborhoods where high crime and a lack of prosecutions has residents living in fear,” Hunter said. “Furthermore, law enforcement is hamstrung by policies that favor criminals. Anyone serious about combatting violence would advocate for prosecution of criminals. Adding another Biden or Bloomberg gun control law will not decrease the violence referenced in this study.”
“It should come as no surprise to anyone that people living in large metros that historically have been controlled by Democrats, who are legally prohibited from obtaining the best means to defend themselves are at risk for violence of any kind,” said Alan M. Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation.
Decidedly anti-gun
Fleegler is a well-known and somewhat frustrated anti-gun researcher. Last month, he taught a faculty seminar at the University of Michigan titled: “Pediatric Firearm Injuries – The Role of Policies and Pediatricians.”
According to his bio at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, Fleegler’s research has focused on “firearm injuries with a focus on epidemiology, risk factors and the role of legislation in reducing firearm fatalities.”
“His seminal research has been quoted by President Barack Obama and referenced by the Supreme Court as well as by numerous state legislatures. He is co-director of the Social Medicine course at Harvard Medical School and regularly lectures around the country,” his bio states.
In 2013, Fleegler published another murky and inconclusive JAMA study titled: “Firearm Legislation and Firearm-Related Fatalities in the United States.” The study concluded that “A higher number of firearm laws in a state are associated with a lower rate of firearm fatalities in the state, overall and for suicides and homicides individually. As our study could not determine cause-and-effect relationships, further studies are necessary to define the nature of this association.”
Time Magazine cited Fleegler in a 2018 story titled “6 Real Ways We Can Reduce Gun Violence in America.” In the story, Fleegler castigated the 1996 Dicky Act, which stopped the CDC from using taxpayer dollars to promote gun control. “The effect of the Dickey Amendment was beyond chilling,” Fleegler is quoted as saying.
“There are thousands of studies waiting to be performed,” Fleegler said in the Time story. “But you can’t do them because of the money.”
No media outlet is too small for the good doctor to grant an interview. In 2015, Fleegler claimed gun-related injuries were driving up health care costs. “These are not just problems for an individual but also an incredible burden on our healthcare system,” he told a reporter for a high school newspaper for Santa Monica High School students.
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This story is part of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and is published here with their permission.
Another gimme at the trough. Needs those Fedbucks to “study” some BS and write a BS report. “There are thousands of studies waiting to be performed,” Fleegler said in the Time story. “But you can’t do them because of the money.”
Pays much better for a pseudointellectual egghead/university twit than GETTING A JOB.
anyone have any idea how many FecBux go John Lott’s way? He used to be one like this Fleagler creature, sucking hard on the public teat. But then Dr. Lott began to seek TRUTH and that began to cut into his monthly fun-ticket quotient
His work (John Lott’s) has earned him a decent living, he is well respectf by we who desire to learn the truth, unadulterated by any political or social agenda.
The most taboo item a professor can do is LIE to his students, to allow them to cheat on an exam and to write biased, fallacious garbage like this. I am a retried University and tenured College Professor having taught full-time for 30 years and concurrently served in the Military for 8 years. Born and raised in Texas, I did not fit the California Liberal College Professor mold. Insiders know that 95% of all the hogwash that Master and PhD Students write should be burnt. The same goes for this fellow who seems to have never experienced real life outside of text books and pieces of paper. Being beholden to Federal Dollars to write ones tripe must be a very EMPTY LIFESTYLE!! Me?? I enjoy the shooting sports and love to go the the range!
Keeps them in new Subarus/Volvos (or Edison/Teslas) and pot. Aint America great.
“The problem is not guns.
It’s hearts without God;
Homes without discipline;
Schools without prayer;
Courts without justice.”
From a Tee obtained from a small booth at the 2022 NRA Convention in Houston.
An NRA goober forcing his religious fairly tales on people who don’t want to hear that nonsense. What a surprise.
cgray,
Interesting that you interpret the expression of an opinion into “…forcing his religious fairytales…”
Would you cite your own expressed opinion (above) as “forcing”?
cgray,
STLpro2A expressed his opinion, but you called it “forcing”.
It the same line of thought, would you call your expressed opinion “forcing”?
and yet he’s exactly correct.
TWO atheist trolls!
It does tend to be most of them unless they are funny then it can be a mixed bag.
cgray, Read above. What the man said is absolutely true!
You could also include stable home lives where the children have no fathers, either, STLPro.
which fatherless homes are the stable ones?
Whoops, sorry about that. Make that the unstable ones. Sorry for the typo. Every story I have read, none of the perps had fathers. Would it have made a difference if they had one? Guess we will never know.
This past weekend, I was able to post without being held for moderation. Tonight, my first two posts, both innocuous, were held.
Oh, Danny boy, where are you when we need you?
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side.
The summer’s gone, and all the roses falling,
It’s you, It’s you must go and I must bide.
the problem is (mostly) young black males…just watch the news…..
Gun deaths during covid? Are they the only deaths not attributed to covid during that time?
No, jwm. Those deaths were also covid.
…………..great now I have to double check and see if some of our homicides got labeled covid deaths for hospital reimbursement funds. Kidding (I hope)
Safe. A year ago November my sister had a stroke and died. The doctors told us it was a stroke. She was fully vaccinated. Her death certificate lists her as a covid death.
I’ve never taken the shot. I had actual covid and lived without any lasting effects.
jwm at this point everyone I worked with has had covid and the people that haven’t taken the shot are the only ones that only had it once. Everything about it screams scam but good luck convincing employers up here without threats of lawsuits (very much plural)
cut yo yibba-yabba, fool – mr. t
quote———–“During that time of increased crime, we have also witnessed ‘woke’ prosecutors that won’t hold criminals to account for their crimes, no-bail policies that have put criminals back onto the streets within hours of committing crimes———-quote
Pure right wing lies and bullshit. In reality the no bail rules did not stop law enforcement from incarceration criminals who committed violent crimes. What no bail did do was prevent people who were accused of non-violent crimes from languishing in prison sometimes for a year or more which caused them to lose their homes, and their jobs. Bail is clearly a tool used by the rich to circumvent incarceration while the poor go to prison awaiting trial.
quote————–The message is actually the reverse: compared to illnesses, especially COVID, gun deaths are relatively insignificant.” ———-quote
This same article in an above paragraph admitted over 1 million people died of gun violence which they now claim in the the paragraph below was insignificant. I guess with the demented far right “Losses can never be too high” when it comes to being inconvenienced with sane gun laws.
quote———-“Crime rates are soaring. We see that not only in news headlines, but also in neighborhoods where high crime and a lack of prosecutions has residents living in fear,———-quote
More horse shit. Criminals are prosecuted for serious crimes but lets face facts you cannot bring back the dead as that is “after the fact”. What the Neanderthal far right refuse to admit to is that preventing the deaths in the first place makes more sense and that can only come about with sane gun laws that keep guns out of the hands of criminals and maniacs. Europe and Asia has done it proving their gun laws work and work well and again the far right ignore history and the facts.
Universal Background Checks prevents second hand guns being shipped by the thousands from hillbilly states that have lax gun laws into big cities and other states that have tough gun laws making those gun laws ineffective.
Safe Storage Laws would prevent millions of gun thefts from quickie smash and grab robberies and save 1,300 children’s lives a year. Safe Storage Laws would also prevent mentally ill kids from taking their parents guns to school to commit mass murder. All this has been fought tooth, nail and claw by the gangster criminal republicans.
quote———-In 2013, Fleegler published another murky and inconclusive JAMA study titled: “Firearm Legislation and Firearm-Related Fatalities in the United States.” The study concluded that “A higher number of firearm laws in a state are associated with a lower rate of firearm fatalities in the state, overall and for suicides and homicides individually. As our study could not determine cause-and-effect relationships, further studies are necessary to define the nature of this association.———-quote
In other words the demented far right is screaming “do not confuse us with the facts as it runs counter to our far right warped ideology”
quote————-Fleegler claimed gun-related injuries were driving up health care costs. “These are not just problems for an individual but also an incredible burden on our healthcare system,”———-quote
Strange that the skin flint stingy far right who hate higher taxes and squeeze every penny so hard it screams for mercy would take issue with that fact but I guess again it does not fit in with their far right warped ideology which refused to admit to the truth.
You’re an idiot, dacian. I’m not even going to try to counter your idiotic diatribe. I’m sorry I dropped you on your head so many times when you were a baby.
It was your choice and you decided to have him. There’s a special place in hell for you, dacian’s mama.
Was he a crack-baby or had fetal-alcohol syndrome? Probably both.
quote———-You’re an idiot, dacian. I’m not even going to try to counter your idiotic diatribe. ——–quote
Since you were not intelligent enough to respond to my post with a counter argument your response proved you were the idiot.
Awww–getting a taste of our own medicine, are we??
@dacian
He doesn’t need to respond to you with a counter argument. You made his counter argument for him in your own delusional mass of non-sense by it being so obviously wrong its a counter argument by its self.
A new month so he has to get his/her/its word quota in. Annual bonus time also at the end of the year. We can look forward to LOTS of moronic BS over the next 30days.
dacian, the DUNDERHEAD. You are a world class liar. The WOKE DA’s have on multitudinous occasions refused to prosecute crimes. “Bail reform” is BULL SHI*! If you commit a crime bail is to insure your appearance in court and to provide some assurance you will not reoffend while on bail.
If crime is not soaring, tell us why the media and the general public say it is? You claim there is an increase in “gun crimes” ? Although no gun has ever committed a crime. you have repeatedly claimed that crimes of violence are up and now you say there is no crime soaring? For your edification, your Universal Background Checks are a panacea. First the NICS system has gross misinformation throughout. Second, do you really think criminals are going to utilize the NICS system? If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you. Third, most crimes committed with a gun are STOLEN GUNS. That’s right, Dunderhead, stolen guns. Your answer is of course to mandate people to lock up their guns. That’s a great idea. Except here you go again trying to mandate an unenforceable law.
Again, you claim that the “far right” are “stingy” when it is an accepted FACT that Conservatives give far more money to charity than you Lefties. Your points are perversions of the truth.
For further clarification, lil’d uses the term far-right often, and in actuality when you are as far left as himself, even the middle is almost far right to a clear minded thinker.
Think of a car crash on the freeway, and the vehicle stops on the far side of the median into the opposing traffic.
Also, the use of the term
” miser ” – which to him means someone whom opposes the squandering of monies they earned. It goes against his socialist values which encourage the squandering of OTHERS earnings.
He wants to punish those whose guns were stolen for “contributory negligence” or something similar.
to Walter the Beverly Hillbilly
quoe——— Second, do you really think criminals are going to utilize the NICS system? ——–quote
Your reading comprehension is a the 6th grade level. When ordinary citizens can no longer sell their gun to anyone with the cash the supply of second hand guns will dry up to almost nothing. European countries have proven this law works and works well but what would an uneducated hillbilly like yourself know about foreign countries and their gun laws. Its hard to believe you can be this stupid.
quote————–Third, most crimes committed with a gun are STOLEN GUNS. That’s right, Dunderhead, stolen guns. Your answer is of course to mandate people to lock up their guns. That’s a great idea. Except here you go again trying to mandate an unenforceable law.————quote
Again more of your laughable stupidity complete with oxymorons. You are against Safe Storage Laws while talking out of one side of your mouth and then out of the other side of your mouth you speak of stolen guns. Really can you be that stupid.
quote———-That’s a great idea. Except here you go again trying to mandate an unenforceable law.———-quote
Again more stupidity and lack of knowledge of the history of foreign gun laws that do indeed work. When the penalties are severe enough people will indeed lock guns up or they know they will be sent to jail if someone gets shot in their home or they get caught with no safe and the guns are stolen. They know they will also be heavily fined and lose their rights to own any firearms. These laws in foreign countries have worked for decades and worked well.
And of course they could be in addition mandatory surprise inspections of the home to see if the guns are locked up in an approved safe. They do this in many civilized countries and no its not against the 4th Amendment because its voluntary or you do not get a permit to own any guns.
And the court has stated they have the right to regulate firearms when it endangers the life of the people. Why do you think they legally banned the sale of new machine guns?
Severe enough penalties? Like the mandatory sentencing of the war on drugs? How well did that work? How about prohibition?
If they can make a profit on smuggling drugs and guns across the wide open southern border why wouldn’t the cartels widen their operation?
dacian. Your lack of education and childish outlook shows.
dacian, the DUNDERHEAD. You are so full of it, you are like a Christmas turkey.
First people selling a firearm have enough common sense not to sell to someone who is suspicious or an apparent criminal. Do you have ANY documented cases where a gun owner sold a gun as you claim? NO, you don’t. You are doing what we call assuming and we all know what assuming does, don’t we? I don’t give a tinker’s damn what other countries do. We have the 2nd A and they don’t, If you don’t like it, MOVE to one of those countries.
You bring stupid a whole band new meaning. This is not a “foreign country and we take for granted that people have common sense. If they do not use common sense in their storage of a firearm, they can be prosecuted for RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT. Have you ever heard of this? The Supreme Court has since rendered BRUEN I suggest you read that decision.
Use your head for something more than a hat rack.
Did the Dingo eat your baby?
ROFL what a load of horseshit you posted,
Why are “Black males were most at risk for homicide” and the greatest perpetrators of these homicides?
I await your best efforts on this.
White slaveholders doing causing it? And stuff.
“hillbilly states”?…or isles of sanity?….people who have criminal intent could care less about background checks….and people who don’t have little need of them….
@dacian
You’re a special kinda stupid. You don’t see the fallacies in your own word salad of delusion.
still nothing to back up your delusional ranting.
how’s your dunning Kruger going ??
These gun control fanatics are just like Capt Ahab going after the Great White Whale. They’re mentally unbalanced.
and Moby will eventually find his opportunity and turn on them. Just about the time they are no longer useful.
Gee, I’m going to be 70 in a year and a half or so. Does that mean I’ll have to commit suicide?
Is theBiden going to be re-elected?
Big wheels keep on turning
Possum splattered on the road
Didnt miss the South bound
Now he’s flatter then a toad
Imma runnin
Possum, I’m 80 guess I missed my opportunity!
Vroom, vroom goes the F150.
Well, when you hit that age, your T level drops through the floor, and you become fat, fatigued, and flaccid. Your wife can’t stand you hanging around the house all day, and seeks entertainment elsewhere. After you retired, the ammo budget took a big hit. What’s to live for?
What’s to live for?
Theres still a few graves I’m waiting to piss on.
The world needs more applied shaped charges. As at:https://www.pinterest.com/pin/cemeteries–2744449745119151/
what are they going to do if you shoot yourself…put you in jail?
No one that I know of has ever done a study of “good gun deaths” vs “bad gun deaths”.
When a criminal dies of a gunshot wound during the commission of a felony, that should be chalked up to “good gun death”. When a victim is killed by a criminal assailant, that is rightfully a “bad gun death”. Suicides are neutral – the guy apparently hit what he intended to hit, with the results he desired. Accidental deaths get chalked up on the bad side, but they only get 1/2 value of an intentional homicide.
Balance the pros and cons, then get back to us, and tell us how much good or bad is caused by the Second Amendment. Stop pretending that every death is a bad thing.
Criminals getting killed should be listed as civic improvements.
They were _ that close to turning their life around.
What’s to live for?
Theres still a few graves I’m waiting to piss on.
Not to come across as cold hearted, although when breaking it down to the hard numbers and science, it will inevitably appear so.
While acknowledging it is extremely upsetting to those directly affected, the reality is that the entire number, even if including suicides disingenuously… Is statistically insignificant, at an entire shocking 0.00286 of the population, rounded up in favor of the opposition.
This is what we need to be pushing. The cold hard numbers, which makes the truth and the depth of deception self evident. 34-35 thousand per annum seems like a lot to many, when realistically, it is a nothing-burger almost beneath notice.
Here’s where the dark sarcasm kicks in because the subject irritates me greatly, and the older I get, the less tolerance I have for peoples bullshit:
OMG_PICKACHU_Face.jpg, we gotta dUuuU sUmThNg! iTz aN ePidEMiC!!?!11!
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest…
That from all the morons who don’t know what an epidemic even is. Apparently, being a Dr. doesn’t exclude one from the category. Or, so it would seem to those unconvinced that in this case it is not stupidity, but a purposed agenda to rob We the People of their power by the useless, self deemed “elite”.
Exactly as Lincoln did of the States themselves I must note. External circumstances surrounding that reality not withstanding in that statement.
I support State Rights to self determination in staying or leaving the Union, but also strict adherence to the Constitution and BoR en toto within it’s confines. And when they do not comply on those particular points, there should be hell to pay. Fedz1lla applicable to that statement as well. How you ask? Mass withholding of income tax and cessation of F3d Civi!l Asset Fofe!ture compliance anyone?
That will hurt, and bad.
2013 study was garbage. “We then divided states into quartiles based on their legislative strength score, with quartile 1 including the states with the lowest scores and quartile 4, the states with the highest scores.” – translation: we hid the lax-restriction, low violence states by lumping them in with lax high violence states and pretended that 4 data points are better than 50 to assert our desired correlation that was clearly not evident when looking at all 50.
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