More bitchslapping of Kleck.
Debunking NRA Talking Points on Self-Defense - Bergen County Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence
The number has been questioned—ridiculed, really—by a number of other researchers, including
David Hemenway, a professor of health policy at Harvard University and director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. In 1997, Hemenway, along with
Philip J. Cook and
Jens Ludwig, published a response to the 1995 study, calling 2.5 million a “mythical number.” In the Kleck study, based on a telephone survey of 5,000 people, the authors asked whether respondents had ever used a gun, even if it wasn’t fired, to protect themselves, someone else, or their property. If they answered yes, they were asked 30 more questions about the incident.
But there are multiple problems with the data, according to Hemenway and company. One is the likelihood that the respondent is not telling the truth, and that the gun wasn’t used in self-defense, but rather to commit a crime. If you’re involved in a drug deal gone bad, and you shoot someone, you might be more likely than a jury to chalk that up to self-defense—but giving researchers a false positive.
Another problem is something inherent in most survey research, a phenomenon called telescoping. If you ask someone about incidents in the last year, the stories they tell may have happened more than a year ago. The human memory doesn’t always line up neatly with the 12-month calendar.
And, Hemenway and his co-authors argue, in any survey a small percentage of answers are just going to be wacky. The person answering the phone may be drunk or senile or just lying. Do a phone survey asking about alien abductions, and you will get nearly a 1-percent positive response, which doesn’t confirm the existence of extraterrestrials. (Or does it?!?)
