ABC News’ extremely misleading report on dangers of guns in homes: Instead of asking neighbors if they own guns, ask them if a gang member lives there

Jan 31, 2014 | Featured

Screen Shot 2014-01-31 at  Friday, January 31, 3.49 AM

ABC News special report, “Young Guns: A Diane Sawyer Special”

Diane Sawyer: “Every hour a child is rushed to the emergency room because of gun shots.”

David Muir: “Looking at children and guns, the most recent statistics from 2009. And take a look tonight, they are eyeopening. The new numbers are arresting. . . . . 7,391 children rushed to the hospital every year because of those gun injuries, so often accidents in the home. 453 of those children die at the hospital. . . .”

ABC News is planning multiple hours of coverage on Friday that is only designed to incorrectly scare people into not owning guns because of constant references to “children” and “accidents in the home.” While the Pediatrics Journal study that they are emphasizing here has its own problems, ABC News doesn’t even come close to accurately reporting what the study does show. The ABC News report constantly talks about the significant risk of guns to children generally, recommending that people ask their neighbors about gun ownership. Their report makes it look like these accidents involve young children, but the numbers are driven by 17, 18, and 19 year olds, overwhelmingly blacks in gangs.

According to the CDC about 80% of the firearm injuries are related to violent crime, not accidents or self harm. Overwhelmingly 17, 18, and 19 year olds, overwhelmingly injuries related to violent crime, and overwhelmingly black unfortunately is related to gangs, particularly drug gangs. Requiring your average family to lock up their guns or to scare them into not owning them, isn’t going to stop incidents involving violent crime or drug gangs. Indeed, disarming people will make this problem worse.

First take two figures from the paper at Pediatrics. The figure clearly shows that the hospitalization rate from firearm injuries due to all causes is about 13 times higher for black males than white males who are 15 to 19 years old (Click on figure to make it larger).
Screen Shot 2014-01-31 at  Friday, January 31, 3.03 AM 1

But the breakdown within the 15 to 19 year old age group is extremely heavily titled towards the older ages. For example, in 2012, 76% of injuries were for those under age 20 were for 17, 18, and 19 year olds. 57% of injuries were for those under age 20 were for 18 and 19 year olds. The Pediatrics article doesn’t supply the year-by-year of age for hospitalizations for firearm injuries, but the article shows an even higher percent of firearm injuries involving 15 to 19 year olds — 84%.
Screen Shot 2014-01-31 at  Friday, January 31, 4.20 AM

The numbers from the CDC for firearm injuries in 2009 would be 12,057. That is greater than the 7,391 hospitalizations from such injuries reported in the paper at Pediatrics. But there is another important consideration. Firearm injuries involving gangs are more serious than for others, simply because gang members with injuries only go to hospitals when those injuries are very serious. What this implies is that true share of hospitalizations for 17, 18, and 19 year olds out of those under 20 is even greater than 76 percent.

Now consider the conversations that ABC News is recommending that you have with your neighbors (click on screenshot to make it larger).
Screen Shot 2014-01-31 at  Friday, January 31, 4.34 AM
Rather than asking neighbors if they have a gun, what would make sense is asking them if they have a 17, 18, or 19 year old gang member in the house.

For a related discussion see John Lott’s previous writing here.

johnrlott

4 Comments

  1. NHLiberty

    Thanks for the informative article… .If they are pulling in data for teenagers, how many of those injuries / deaths are from suicides?

    • Michael Keegan

      My question is why did they include 18 and 19 year olds in paediatric data… Theyve cooked their results using high risk adults to create a narrative

  2. NHLiberty

    Also, another question… How do you know the blacks are in drug gangs?

  3. Michael Keegan

    My question is why did they include 18 and 19 year olds in paediatric data… Theyve cooked their results using high risk adults to create a narrative

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. The Daley Gator | Moms Demand Action trying to silence Dana Loesch - [...] As the Crime Prevention Research Center shows, the numbers are heavily skewed by gang violence from older teens. [...]
  2. 20/20 home guns - Page 5 - XDTalk Forums - Your XD/XD(m) Information Source! - [...] Sure, we as adult gun owners need to do a better job securing our firearms. After all, there are…
  3. ABC 20/20 next Friday 01/31/2014 small Children finding firearms at homes. - Page 4 - [...] googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1373474439452-2'); }); Originally Posted by Eidolon Was the first 55 minutes a set up to ease us…
  4. Gregory Smith - I love your blog I have read this article and enjoyed it

Archives

On The Michigan Talk Network: To Discuss Illegal Alien Crime

On The Michigan Talk Network: To Discuss Illegal Alien Crime

Dr. John Lott talked to Steve Gruber on the Michigan Talk Network about the illegal immigrant killing of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley. They also discussed the relationship between illegal immigration and crime. (Thursday, February 29, 2024)