Scientific American ran anti-gun stories over the past month. Unlike Scientific American stories that have covered many other topics in the past, the recent gun-related stories lack depth and they are very biased. Maybe there is an expectation that a magazine with the title ‘Science’ in it should reflect a scientific journal and stories in it should flesh out all aspects of an issue, but this may be my own personal bias – to uphold a scientific standard where emotions run low and facts rule the argument.
The nature of these stories is important because they do a few things worth noting before examining them. The stories use illogical arguments. The stories clearly fill an agenda more than they uncover any truth, which means they are deceptive. Gone unchecked, they may demonstrate how not to apply scientific reasoning, which serves as a detrimental force as a propagator of science.
As an educator who is closing on his 20th year, this egregious lapse in scientific judgment must not go unnoticed. Allowing Scientific American to recklessly publish opinion as if it was science is dangerous to science education and certainly detrimental to the debate on crime.
So, in the spirit of flushing out all the discrepancies these Scientific American stories hold and to set science propagation straight, let us take them, one-by-one.
Shermer’s Article
Shermer’s The Science of Guns Proves Arming Untrained Citizens Is a Bad Idea (2013) cited a number of gun statistics that indicated a gun is used offensively far more times than it is used defensively. However, Kleck and Gertz (1995) found the opposite to be true, that guns are used hundreds of thousands to millions of times annually as a method for stopping violence and death. This would mean guns are used defensively to protect lives several times more than they are used offensively to cause crimes and hurt people.
His article also insinuated that guns cause personal harm. Yet for suicide rates in 2005, Japan’s suicide rate was the third highest among all countries and the US was the 18th (Washington Post, n.d.). Japan had more than 34,000 suicides in 2003 (Global Times, 2012). Shermer’s assumption was that guns were the cause for the suicides in the US. Had Shermer studied all countries like Japan, where guns are significantly lower in number than the US (Kopel, 2012), and reported that several countries have higher suicide rates than the US, it would defy his logic and actually indicate guns do not correlate with suicides and are therefore not the cause of suicides.
Shermer stated he got rid of his .357 because guns were used in crimes. He was operating under a faulty belief that guns were used for crimes more than defense, but his reasoning – again – defies all logic. Because guns are used for crimes, he argued, he got rid of his gun. As if getting rid of a gun equated to getting rid of crime, he rested his case for abandoning gun ownership. When he made the comment, it divulged either insincere methods of argumentation or an inability to reason.
It is his right to buy a gun or not buy a gun. This is his right and the right we all have. However, gun ownership does not equate to being a criminal and committing a crime no more than owning a propane tank makes one a bomber. Gun ownership does not mean the owner will commit a crime. It has been the job of some anti-gun proponents to demonize gun-owners and gun-ownership in the past, but are we to assume Shermer ditched his gun to prevent himself from being a criminal? His logic is truly puzzling and it certainly falls outside the domain of a scientific report. Shermer's persuasions might have worked perfectly on media outlets like Maury Povitch shows, not a scientific magazine.
Next, Shermer entertained ‘research’ obtained from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Did the reader know Bloomberg has plunked down millions to forward an anti-gun agenda? Bloomberg spent $12 million to place advertisements that further his anti-gun agenda (Howerton, 2013). It is extremely difficult to trust data that is financially related to the deep pockets of Mr. Bloomberg. Nevertheless, more people committed suicide in Japan without guns than all the people who committed murders with guns in the US, by the study Shermer cited in his own story. Shermer may have unknowingly channeled the literary technique called irony, but not in his favor.
Speaking of people who commit crimes, especially with guns, the largest perpetrators of gun crime in the US are not law-abiding gun owners. According to two Department of Justice Reports (Cooper & Smith, 2011) (Fox & Zawitz, 2010): 1) the two highest perpetrators of gun-related homicides in order are gang members and felons, 2) as population density rises, so does per person homicide rate. According to a ATF Factsheet (2013), "Gangs are responsible for an average of 48 percent of violent crime in most jurisdictions and up to 90 percent in several others..." There is nothing in these studies that indicate law-abiding gun owners are a threat to anyone.
Restricting access to good, law-abiding people has no merit. It is also unconstitutional to do so.
Wadman's Article
Wadman's piece, called Firearms Research: The Gunfighter (2013), is centered around Garen Wintemute, an emergency room doctor. He has been known to run clandestine, hidden camera escapades to uncover activities of gun sales at gun shows and the like. His results, unfortunately, are neither informative nor amusing.
Had Wintermute done his research, like examining studies that already exist, he would have found what the Department of Justice knows. They already know gangs cause most homicides. Had he looked at the FBI 2011 Gang Threat Assessment (n.d.):
...Mexican drug cartel activity has fueled crime in the porous US Southwest Border region, where easy access to weapons, a high demand for drugs, ample opportunity for law enforcement corruption, and a large Hispanic population ripe for recruitment and exploitation exists.
Instead of attempting to transform gun crime into a public health issue, it is clearly still a crime issue. CNN reported that crime has steadily gone down over the years and "...crime remains a serious problem in many urban pockets riddled with gangs, drugs, and poverty" (Frieden, 2012). Had Wintermute looked at the gun homicides committed by gang members, he would have discovered gang members, not law-abiding citizens, were the perpetrators of crimes.
Wadman's article cites a Mayor Against Illegal Guns financed 'study,' but biased mayor Bloomberg is a heavy supporter (or the genesis) of such slanted works (Fitzgerald, 2013). He also described Wintermute as being perplexed by the NRA allegedly blocking the Center for Disease Control from studying guns. What Wintermute failed to find was an existing CDC study (2002) that found no conclusive beneficial evidence that tied gun control measures to reductions on crime. Had he found the study, he would have determined the uselessness of his three-step prescription for curtailing already dropping crime. His three-steps advocate for restricting gun access instead of targeting the source of gun crime, which occurs in urban areas by gang members. Drugs, he would have found, play a contributing role, too.
Reflections
The study of science is the pursuit of knowledge in order to uncover truth. It is the act of separating mistruths from commonly held beliefs to alleviate misunderstandings. When Scientific American prints stories that are lopsided, they do little to propel its readers forward in dispelling mistruths. For instance, if the accusations that the NRA somehow diverted CDC resources away from uncovering facts is indeed correct, the prudent course of action to take would have been to demonstrate balance, not be guilty of bias as has happened in the Scientific American stories.
The Shermer and Wadman stories fail to include existing CDC or FBI studies that point at the causes of gun homicides, which are again due to gangs, felons, and drugs. They also could have found that gun homicides have been decreasing since the 80s (Cohn, Taylor, Lopez, Gallagher, Parker & Maass, 2013). Failure to include these facts weighs heavily on the lack of merits of the stories. It unveils the lack of depth most readers desire when they seek information of this kind.
Did the editors of Scientific American review the stories before sending the magazines to print? If so it begs another question: To what standard do the editors of Scientific American hold their stories? Failure to provide a balanced view places the stories in the category of fluff 'journalism' or yellow 'journalism,' dare the term journalism be used to describe the stories.
Let it be known that I take pride in sharing the gun homicide data I have found over the years. The data makes most people walk cautiously when entertaining a path down restricting our civil rights by restricting access to guns. If we truly want to protect members of our society, especially those who cannot care for themselves, it is encumbant upon us to be careful not to institute legislation that would make citizens more susceptible to criminal behavior.
The Scientific American stories attempted to portray gun crime as a public health issue. When known research tells us that inner-city gangs are committing crimes with guns, the best way to handle the issue is not gained with a civil rights restriction philosophy. Researchers can stop the clandestine, hidden camera reports. We need journalists who can find ways to help kids make positive choices instead of joining gangs or stop drugs from clogging the brains of community members.
Solutions
Besides involving the FBI and local law enforcement, there are other tactics. Since gangs are the main cause for gun homicides, reducing gang membership would be a focus worth entertaining. By focusing on gang prevention, it can be possible to lower gang involvement and the crimes typically committed by gangs.
The Juvenile Justice Bulletin (Esbensen, 2000) states there are three types of prevention efforts:
- Primary prevention focuses on the entire population at risk and the identification of those conditions (personal, social, environmental) that promote criminal behavior.
- Secondary prevention targets those individuals who have been identified as being at greater risk of becoming delinquent.
- Tertiary prevention targets those individuals who are already involved in criminal activity or who are gang members.
...and it has several specific recommendations for reducing gang involvement. Beyond the recommendations it offers within those efforts, here are some other strategies: build responsive education programs, help families find resources to make it easier for them to stay intact, work on reducing poverty, find ways to build a sense of community, and get communities to communicate with police.
Conclusion
The folly of those who advocate the elimination of guns from society, even though it would defy recent Supreme Court rulings, like the Heller ruling that defend an individual's right to gun ownership (Acosta, 2008), have forgotten The 18th Amendment. Prohibition did not work (Thornton, 1991). Prohibition did not work with alcohol and there is nothing to suggest it would work in the US with guns.
The only course of action is to dismiss political agendas and attack the three main perpetrators of crime. Gangs, felons, and drugs are the targets. Once those targets are given reduced affect, the best chance of crime reduction will be obtained.
Shermer's story title might suggest to some people that guns are being dangerously placed in the hands of citizens. Yet, there are two facts that destroy the myth: 1) states with concealed weapon carry laws has increased since the 90s (Hunter, 2012) and 2) these concealed weapon holders do not cause an increase in crime (Kessler, 2012).
After reviewing these articles in Scientific American, they did little to move the crime debate forward. In fact, there is a case to be made that the articles do the opposite. Why? The illogical statements revealed poor argumentation. Furthermore, the refusal to report facts on all sides of the argument hint at bias, which has no place in a scientific report.
Shame on you Scientific American for not demanding more for its readers, not serving as a educational tool for younger readers, and not moving the crime debate forward.
Resources
Acosta (2008) United States: Gun Ownership and the Supreme Court. Library of Congress. Accessed online on May 12th, 2013 at: http://loc.gov/law/help/second-amendment.php
ATF (2013) Combating Gang Violence. Factsheet. Accessed online on May 17th, 2013 at: https://www.atf.gov/publications/factsheets/factsheet-combating-gang-violence.html
CDC (2002) First Reports Evaluating the Effectiveness of Strategies for Preventing Violence: Firearms Laws . Findings from the Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Accessed online May 10th, 2013 at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5214a2.htm
Cohn, Taylor, Lopez, Gallagher, Parker & Maass (2013) Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware: Pace of Decline Slows in Past Decade. PEW Research. Accessed online on May 11th, 2013 at: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/07/gun-homicide-rate-down-49-since-1993-peak-public-unaware/
Cooper & Smith (2011) Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008 U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Accessed online on May 10th, 2013 at: http://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf
Esbensen (2000) Preventing Adolescent Gang Involvement. Juvenile Justice Bulletin. U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Accessed online on May 10th, 2013 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/182210.pdf
FBI (n.d.) 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment: Emerging Trends. Accessed online on May 11th, 2013 at: http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/2011-national-gang-threat-assessment/2011-national-gang-threat-assessment-emerging-trends
Fitzgerald (2013) Bloomberg Gun Control Group Ignores Democratic Appeal for Leniency. Newsmax. Accessed online on May 12th, 2013 at: http://www.newsmax.com/US/bloomberg-guns-control-democrats/2013/05/07/id/503181
Fox and Zawitz (2010) Homicide Trends in the United States. U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Accessed online on May 10th, 2013 at: http://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htius.pdf
Frieden (2012) Violent Crime down for 5th straight year. CNN. Accessed online on May 10th, 2013 at: http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/29/justice/us-violent-crime
Global Times (2012)Suicide number likely to fall below 30,000 in Japan. Accessed online on May 9th, 2013 at: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/748847.shtml
Hunter (2012) Ten More States Allow Concealed Carry Permits Within Last 10 Years. CNSNews. Accessed online on May 12th, 2013 at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ten-more-states-allow-concealed-carry-permits-within-last-10-years
Howerton (2013) Do Michael Bloomberg’s Anti-Gun Ads Violate All 3 of the NRA’s Basic Gun Safety Rules? Here’s the Evidence. The Blaze. Accessed online on May 9th, 2013 at: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/03/25/do-michael-bloombergs-anti-gun-ads-violate-all-3-of-the-nras-basic-gun-safety-rules-heres-the-evidence/
Kessler (2012) Do concealed-weapon laws result in less crime? Washington Post. Accessed online on May 12th, 2013 at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/do-concealed-weapon-laws-result-in-less-crime/2012/12/16/e80a5d7e-47c9-11e2-ad54-580638ede391_blog.html
Kleck and Gertz (1995) Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (Northwestern), Guns and Violence Symposium, vol. 86, no. 1, 1995: 150.
Kopel (2012) Why Japan is So Safe from Guns: A Society Utterly Different from Our Own. Daily News. Accessed Online May 9th, 2013 at: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/japan-safe-guns-article-1.1223065
Shermer (2013) The Science of Guns Proves Arming Untrained Citizens Is a Bad Idea.
Scientific American. Accessed online May 10th, 2013 at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gun-science-proves-arming-untrained-citizens-bad-idea
Thornton (1991) Alcohol Prohibition Was a Failure. Cato Institute Policy Analysis Number 157. Accessed online on May 12th, 2013 at: http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa157.pdf
Wadman (2013) Firearms Research: The Gunfighter. Scientific American.
Accessed online May 10th, 2013 at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=firearms-research-the-gun-fighter
Washington Post (n.d.) World Suicide Rates by Country. Accessed online on May 9th, 2013 at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/suiciderate.html
