Dear Amy, Ambuj and Anoop,
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School for Gun Policy and Research published a very good paper in Oct 2012: The Case for Gun Policy Reform in America:
http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-gun-policy-and-research/publications/WhitePaper102512_CGPR.pdf
You might find it informative.
Regards,
Ash
------------------------------
On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 15:24 GMT Amy Price wrote:
>Ambuj,
>
>Yes you are right, this is a great article. In this latest shooting a big
>focus was on the autistic community which caused serious hurt to the
>children and parents in this population. Still, in my estimation other than
>if it was by accident the act of shooting someone would be a sign of mental
>illness, perhaps the thought of someone shooting another except in war or
>self defense is too much for me to even comprehend.
>
>From: Ambuj Kumar <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Ambuj Kumar <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Friday, February 8, 2013 9:49 AM
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Gun Control Laws
>
>Hi Anoop,
> The closest discussion where some logic and reasoning was used was on NPR
>by the science correspondent Shankar Vedantam who very nicely explained the
>issue and the challenges in addressing the issue of gun control and
>violence. The link is
>http://www.npr.org/2013/01/16/169543652/hard-to-identify-many-mass-murders-a
>s-mentally-ill-beforehand
>
>Some nice and logical quotes from Shankar on this issue are as follows:
>"The truth is there are very large number of people who could potentially
>commit violence and a very small number of people who actually do, and
>science does not have a very good way of spotting the needles in the
>haystacks."
>
>Another one:
>" We know when the system breaks down. We don't know when the system works.
>We don't know when the system has kept guns out of the hands of somebody who
>could have become a mass shooter. Every time there's a mass shooting, the
>intuitively appealing thing to do is to focus on background checks and focus
>on people with mental illness. These seem to be the lowest hanging fruits.
>The idea that you can single out dangerous people and keep guns away from
>them, that's really a stretch when you look at the scientific data."
>
>Thanks
>
>Ambuj
>
>
>
>
>
>On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 8:31 AM, Anoop Balachandran <[log in to unmask]>
>wrote:
>> I hope you all are familiar with the recent debate about gun control laws in
>> USA. I am bringing up this point because all I see is people bringing up
>> anecdotal evidence to support their hypothesis, even by politicians. I think
>> this is clear case of system 1 thinking and confirmation bias.
>>
>> So my question is why aren't people looking at studies, why aren't they
>> talking about risk vs benefits like in an evidence- based approach than
>> quoting one or two anecdotes. Or if there are no studies why isn't anyone
>> calling for more funding on these studies.
>>
>> just curious to know what all you guys think about this issue from an
>> evidence-based approach.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Anoop Balachandran
>
>
>
>--
>Ambuj Kumar, MD, MPH
>727-481-2787
>
>
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