Lies and Statistics

Proverbs 18:17 says, “The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.” This is nowhere more evident than in the gun debate.

When Emory University medical professor Arthur Kellermann told Americans that owning a gun is associated with a 2.7 times greater risk of being murdered the newspapers trumpeted it as a reason to ban guns. But Kellermann’s study also showed an equal risk increase associated with owning a burglar alarm. As National Review’s Dave Kopel points out, this study overlooks “the obvious fact that one reason people choose to own guns, or to install burglar alarms, is that they are already at a higher risk of being victimized by crime…. Kellermann’s method would also prove that possession of insulin increases the risk of diabetes.”