* Crossposted from: FREEDOM'S_VOICE
Date:    96-06-27 02:35:04 EDT
From:    EdgarSuter@aol.com
To:      letters@usnews.com
[references provided for editorial confirmation only]
June 26, 1996
Re: Headden S. "Guns, Money, and Medicine" USNWR 7/1/96 pp 31-40.
Dear Editor,
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association's analysis,
every year 180,000 Americans die from physicians' negligence[1] - almost five
times the number who die from guns.  Why are doctors not declared a public
health menace?  It is because we save so many more lives than we take and so
it is with America's guns where every year 2.5 million Americans use guns to
protect themselves, their families, and their livelihoods - almost a 1/2
million lives saved[2] plus injuries prevented, medical costs averted, and
property protected.[3]
In 98% of these protective uses, as in my own protective use a year ago, the
gun is not even fired,[4] no one is injured, police report is rarely
necessary.  As in my own case, we go home and hug our children, unnoticed by
the media or the trauma surgeons who see and sensationalize only the outcomes
of criminal and irresponsible gun use, never the success stories.  To discuss
the "costs" of guns without considering the benefits is as meaningless as
noting operating room deaths without accounting for the surgical saves.
The actual medical costs of gunshot wounds is $1.5 billion per year,[5] less
than two-tenths of 1% of America's annual $900 billion health costs.  The
anti-self-defense lobby inflates this number to $80 billion by pretending
that the victims are average people with average lifetimes and earnings,
ignoring that  2/3rds of homicide victims  are  drug dealers and their
customers and take a terrible toll on society in both human and economic
costs.[3,6,7]  They have even added the "cost" of lost work because employees
gossip about gun violence.[8]  If we use the prohibitionists' own method, we
find that guns save 1/2 million lives and $500 billion annually (equivalent
to about 10% of the US Gross Domestic Product)[3] --- Now _that_ is news!
Yours,
Edgar A. Suter MD
National Chair
Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research Inc.
a national non-profit physicians think tank
5201 Norris Canyon Road #220
San Ramon CA 94583
voice 510-277-0333
FAX 510-277-1568
Note to the editor: We find it interesting that, though our organization has
repeatedly testified to Congress on these issues, is published in the medical
literature on these issues, and has even been attacked repeatedly by the New
England Journal of Medicine in its editorials, your reporter, Ms. Susan
Headden contacted none of the leaders of our organization.  Please suggest to
Ms. Headden that she do a more thorough job in the future.  Thank you.
References:
[1] Leape LL. Error in medicine. JAMA. 1994; 272(23): 1851-57.
[2] Kleck G and Gertz M. "Armed Resistance to Crime: the Prevalence and
Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun." Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology.
Summer 1995:;  86:143-186.
[3] Suter EA  Waters WC 4th  Murray GB  Hopkins CB  Asiaf J  Moore JB
 Fackler M  Cowan DN  Eckenhoff RG  Singer TR  et al. "Violence in America -
Effective solutions." J Med Assoc Ga June 1995; 84(6):253-263.
[4] Kleck G. Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America.  New York: Aldine de
Gruyter. 1991.
[5] Max W and Rice DP. Shooting in the dark: estimating the cost of firearm
injuries. Health Affairs. 1993; 12(4): 171-85.
[6] McGonigal MD, Cole J, Schwab W, Kauder DR, Rotondo MF, and Angood PB.
Urban firearms deaths: a five-year perspective. J Trauma. 1993; 35(4):
532-36.
[7] Hutson HR, Anglin D, and Pratss MJ. Adolescents and children injured or
killed in drive-by shootings in Los Angeles. N Engl J Med. 1994; 330: 324-27.
[8] Nieto M, Dunstan R, and Koehler GA. Firearm-related violence in
california: incidence and economic costs. Sacramento CA: California Research
Bureau, California State Library. October 1994.
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