[I'm in the process of cleaning up the formatting of .txt files.] I've put some articles in my ftp dir by NRA research director Dr. Paul Blackman. The original files are in WordPerfect format and I've added plaintext versions. These were sent to me by Dr. Edgar Suter. Thanks, Ed. The WWW URL is: ftp://ftp.shell.portal.com/pub/chan/research/blackman Here are the first few lines of the articles. I converted *.txt files from WordPerfect. Sorry for any formatting errors. In the .txt versions footnotes appear at the end of each document instead of at the bottom of each page. Jeff Chan Internet: chan@shell.portal.com uucp mail: {apple,claris,pyramid}!shell.portal.com!chan (Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are mine unless otherwise noted.) +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. | | -- Thomas Jefferson | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ WWW URL: ftp://ftp.shell.portal.com/pub/chan/index.html ftp: ftp.shell.portal.com: pub/chan: README, INDEX, firearms.faq firearms, liberty mailing lists: majordomo@shell.portal.com: help ==> aap4.txt <== September 9, 1994 Letters to the Editor AAP News 141 Northwest Point Blvd. P.O. Box 927 Elk Grove Village, Ill. 60009-0927 Since 94% of "children's" firearm-related deaths1 are in an age group (10-19) constituting just 12% of all pediatric patients2 -- and the poor, black males disproportionately involved in firearm-related death undoubtedly account for an even smaller percentage -- it follows that few pediatricians following the AAP's recommendations regarding firearms are treating potential problem patients or their families. While AAP's legislative policies are vague, the goal is the unconstitutional one of limiting the rights of adults to that which is suitable for children.3 No data support AAP's call to ban "deadly air guns and assault weapons." For all age groups, two deaths per year involve air guns4 -- fewer than are associated with most other Olympic sports. The only "assault weapons" datum is the claim that some media accounts mention some youthful homicides with semi-automatic handguns.5 Similarly, there is no reliable breakdown on handgun vs. long gun for suicide; the AAP relies on a small-scale study in an unrepresentative urban area.6 The assertion of a recent ==> assault.txt <== May 19, 1994 MEMORANDUM FROM: PHB SUBJECT: FEINSTEIN'S RESEARCH ON "ASSAULT WEAPONS" ==> bjspoll2.txt <== July 23, 1993 MEMORANDUM FROM: PHB SUBJECT: BJS SURVEY OF STATE PRISON INMATES, 1991 ==> cdc93.txt <== April 1, 1993 MEMORANDUM FROM: PHB SUBJECT: PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF CDC'S "FIREARM MORTALITY AMONG CHILDREN, YOUTH, AND YOUNG ADULTS 1-34 YEARS OF AGE, TRENDS AND CURRENT STATUS: UNITED STATES, 1985-1990 ==> cdcconf.txt <== MEMORANDUM FROM: PHB SUBJECT: CDC'S 3RD NATIONAL INJURY CONTROL CONFERENCE, APRIL 1991 ==> clinton.txt <== September 27, 1993 MEMORANDUM FROM: PHB SUBJECT: CLINTON ON GUNS, HOMICIDE, AND HEALTH ==> cocaine2.txt <== July 25, 1994 Letters to the Editor Journal of the American Medical Association 515 North State Street Chicago, Ill. 60610 In their study on firearms and cocaine involvement in New York City homicides,1 Tardiff et al. found homicide rates, and firearms involvement, significantly higher among black, Latino, and Asian Americans, and especially among those adolescent and younger adult age groups. However, while attempting to compare cocaine use among homicide victims to society at large, they recognized the need to use survey research on cocaine use among non-homicide victims, they felt no such need for comparisons involving firearms. Had ==> jtrauma2.txt <== May 27, 1994 John H. Davis, M.D. Editor, Journal of Trauma Department of Surgery D-319 Given Building Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine Burlington, Vermont 05405 I shall note just three of the flaws in the comparison of the costs of treating gunshot and stab wounds with the recommendation of more restrictive gun laws.1 ==> kidguns1.txt <== INTRODUCTION The picture is simultaneously appalling and appealing -- an infant playing with what appears to be a pistol. The issue is children and firearms. What's wrong with the picture is that the issue of "children" and firearms abuse, of firearms-related violence and death, virtually never involves an infant. In an average year, the number of infants killed, accidentally or criminally, with firearms is on the order of 10, out of nearly 40,000 infant deaths each year. (NSC [National Safety Council], 1992:22; FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation], 1992:18) The "child" whose gun misuse has raised the number of gun-related deaths in the past few years to the point where some call it "epidemic" is a teenager without morals or manners or a hope for the future, whose experience with drugs suggests that banning a product does not much concern him. But attacking the problem of "children and guns" is politically appealing. Among the leading anti-gun organizations, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that fact in the special "violence" issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA): "There is no controversy in the area of children having unsupervised access to loaded guns. ==> massmurd.txt <== April 21, 1994 MEMORANDUM FROM: PHB SUBJECT: MASS MURDERS ==> medbash1.txt <== CRIMINOLOGY'S ASTROLOGY: An Evaluation of Public Health Research on Firearms and Violence ==> medbash2.txt <== [a different version???] CRIMINOLOGY'S ASTROLOGY: The CDC Approach to Public Health Research on Firearms and Violence ==> nejm5.txt <== HOMICIDE TRENDS, WASHINGTON, D.C., BALTIMORE, BIG CITIES GENERALLY. (The "study" by U.Md. criminologists in the New England Journal of Medicine used the period from 1968 through September 1976 as pre-law, and the rest of 1976 through 1987 as post-law. In fact, the law took effect not in September 1976 but in February 1977, so all of 1976 may be considered pre-law. [Deleting the final quarter of 1976 from D.C. would raise its projected 1976 homicide rate to 27.8 and would lower the post-law average rate, Oct.1976- Dec.1987, fractionally from 30.0 to about 29.9 per 100,000 -- depending upon what one chooses as the average population.] The NEJM article relied upon National Center for Health Statistics data -- which would differ from the FBI data used here in that justifiable homicides by police and civilians are not reported in the FBI data. In September 1982, the voters of D.C. by initiative adopted an NRA-backed mandatory penalty for using a firearm in a violent or drug-trafficking offense.) NUMBER/RATE OF CRIMINAL HOMICIDES (FBI) YEAR BALTIMORE WASHINGTON RATE/BIG CITIES (pop.) (pop.) [quarterly] over 250,000 ==> nrajama9.txt <== July 1992 MEMORANDUM FROM: PHB SUBJECT: AMA'S JUNE ASSAULT ON "VIOLENCE" (i.e., FIREARMS) In June, all ten AMA publications focused, to some extent or another, on violence, with special emphasis, especially to the news media, on firearms -- particularly due to the emphasis of the June 10th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and the press conference unveiling that issue. Almost every aspect of the magazine (from the cover artwork featuring Munch's "Death of Marat" to the 100-years-ago in JAMA on assaults on medical personnel) focused on violence, including book reviews, letters to the editor, communications, articles, reprints from the CDC, abstracts from other journals, etc., and, of course, editorials. In all, there were roughly 80 items touching on violence of some sort in the ten publications, with guns featured in perhaps 25- 30. Most are relatively innocuous, featuring more data than editorializing; some merely recount other reports (such as the abstract telling how the D.C. gun law has been "effective" from the December 1991 NEJM). What follows, in roughly the order of significance, is a brief statement of the thesis of the various items most apt to be raised, along with some criticism, where warranted, or pointing out the true significance of the findings. ==> nurses.txt <== [This was the written text supposedly supplied attendees at an American Academy of Nursing (?) conference on violence held in November 1993 at the Washington Hilton Hotel; the oral presentation was shorter and involved a debate with Arthur Kellermann, with a moderator objectively wearing a ban-handguns button.] Over the past two decades, criminologists have learned a great deal about firearms and violence.* Unfortunately, the public health response has largely been to ignore the findings or miscite them in the rhetorical push to have the medical community pretend it has proven the widespread availability of firearms to be a problem, with educational and legislative solutions obvious. While some of the public health production of data have proven interesting, virtually all of the analysis has been pointless, misguided, and dishonest. The criminological findings are, in some ways, disappointing. The most thorough studies by James D. Wright and his colleagues, first at the University of Massachusetts1,2 and then at Tulane,3,4 along with the massive literature review and original research by Gary Kleck5 at Florida State University, are all disappointing to a society wishing for simple answers to firearms related violence. Briefly, they have not found firearms availability related to criminal violence, homicide, or suicide. And virtually no gun law has any impact on violent crime, or gun use in violent crime. Kleck found some approaches to punishing unlawful carrying of a firearm somewhat beneficial, and some differences in law or gun availability might affect slightly gun use in suicide but not the ==> nycaffid.txt <== IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK RICHMOND BORO GUN CLUB, INC., et al., ) ) Plaintiffs ) ) v. ) CIVIL NO. CV-92 0151 ) JUDGE RAGGI CITY OF NEW YORK, NEW YORK, et al., ) MAGISTRATE CHREIN ) Defendants ) SUPPLEMENTAL AFFIDAVIT OF PAUL H. BLACKMAN, Ph.D. I, Paul H. Blackman, Ph.D., hereby swear or affirm as follows: 1. My name is Paul H. Blackman, Ph.D., and my address is NRA Institute for Legislative Action, 1600 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. 2. My experience and qualifications are detailed in my previous affidavit ==> nyctova.txt <== April 22, 1993 MEMORANDUM FROM: PHB SUBJECT: BATF TRACES FROM NEW YORK CITY There are a number of problems with pretending that tracing a few guns to Virginia proves the state to have been a major source for gun trafficking. __ [here's an ls -l] -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 4399 Sep 10 17:31 aap4.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 14386 Sep 10 17:22 aap4.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 2109 Sep 10 17:31 assault.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 4357 Sep 10 17:22 assault.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 3070 Sep 10 17:31 bjspoll2.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 7283 Sep 10 17:22 bjspoll2.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 3941 Sep 10 17:31 cdc93.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 9163 Sep 10 17:22 cdc93.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 4519 Sep 10 17:31 cdcconf.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 8826 Sep 10 17:22 cdcconf.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 4048 Sep 10 17:31 clinton.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 13225 Sep 10 17:23 clinton.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 3594 Sep 10 17:31 cocaine2.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 6699 Sep 10 17:23 cocaine2.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 3387 Sep 10 17:31 jtrauma2.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 6667 Sep 10 17:23 jtrauma2.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 157794 Sep 10 17:33 kidguns1.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 177925 Sep 10 17:25 kidguns1.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 4095 Sep 10 17:33 massmurd.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 4643 Sep 10 17:25 massmurd.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 99225 Sep 10 17:34 medbash1.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 112530 Sep 10 17:27 medbash1.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 97616 Sep 10 17:36 medbash2.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 111362 Sep 10 17:28 medbash2.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 1912 Sep 10 17:44 nejm5.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 6447 Sep 10 17:28 nejm5.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 46846 Sep 10 17:45 nrajama9.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 60815 Sep 10 17:29 nrajama9.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 39948 Sep 10 17:46 nurses.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 50128 Sep 10 17:29 nurses.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 12996 Sep 10 17:46 nycaffid.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 19328 Sep 10 17:30 nycaffid.wp -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 2663 Sep 10 17:46 nyctova.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 chan vip 8077 Sep 10 17:30 nyctova.wp