From the November 2000 Idaho Observer:

Slanted med student poll backfires

Organized medical murderers-in-training miss gun safety target

A similar version of the article below was published in these pages last spring. They are being reprinted in this context because there is nothing more rewarding than to engage in a conversation about gun rights and, after listening to a gun-grabber parrot the litany of non-sensical, politically-correct illogical arguments of the day, blast them with something short, sweet and perfect in its science and logic.

The number of people killed daily through iatrogenic (doctor-induced) events is equivalent to a fully-loaded Boeing 727 crashing and killing everyone on board -- every day.

By The Idaho Observer

Medical Student Journal of the American Medical Association (MSJAMA) recently posted to its website the following introductory statement for a medical student opinion poll regarding gun control:

“In the United States, firearms are used to commit a majority of all homicides, guns in the home increase the risk of homicide almost 3-fold, and the risk of suicide almost 5-fold. Most of the risk is related to handguns. Given these data do you feel that a universal ban on handgun sales and licenses would be an appropriate public health measure?”

Poll participants were then asked to choose a position on gun rights from the following four options:

1. All public health statistics aside, the right to bear arms is absolutely protected by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.

2. The right to bear arms is supported by Charlton Heston. Anything that is considered good for Charlton Heston must also be good for the public health.

3. These data clearly demonstrate that access to handguns is a significant and preventable cause of homicide and suicide; therefore, public health measures limiting the distribution of handguns are long overdue.

4. Better data on the epidemiology of firearm-related death are required before a universal handgun ban would be justified.

At the end of the polling period (4/7/00), 9,650 votes were reportedly recorded; the result:

#1. 90 percent (8641 votes)

#2. 3 percent (247 votes)

#3. 2 percent (229 votes)

#4. 6 percent (533 votes)

The pollsters rather transparent attempt to sway a response backfired. Even though state and federal governments and organized medicine, with the help of their lapdog media, have spent decades and $billions attempting to convince the American people to give up their weapons, the overwhelming majority still seem to believe that people, not guns, kill people.

Last December, a congressional committee determined that -- unlike guns -- doctors are actually killing people.

Statistics vary according to the needs of the entity contriving them, but the “accidental” death stats which follow can be trusted as being representative of real life:

Number of physicians in the U.S.............................700,000

Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year.......................120,000

Accidental deaths per physician..................................0.171

Number of gun owners in the U.S.........................80,000,000

Number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups) ......1,500

Accidental deaths per gun owner......................0.0000188

Therefore, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners. In some hospitals, the stats are worse.