Tennessee gun accident data was wrong...Dr. John Lott found the mistake...

2aguy

Diamond Member
Jul 19, 2014
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Yeah.....in the 1990s there were 200 million guns in private hands and 1.2 million people carrying guns for self defense.....

Today, in 2016, there are now 357 million guns in private hands and 15 million people carrying guns for self defense.....

Our gun murder rate through this time period fell 49%.....

And at the same time...our accidental gun death rate fell as well......except the statistics for 2014 showed an increase in accidental gun deaths.....which was odd......

Dr. John Lott.....the economist who is the most hated man in anti gun activists circles discovered the reason the rate went up....the Tennessee Department of Health screwed up....

CDC identifies coding error in Tennessee’s accidental gunshot deaths, thanks to Dr. John Lott

A “coding error” caused the dramatic spike observed in Tennessee’s accidental gunshot death reports for 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control website.

But CDC health officials wouldn’t even know about the mistake if Dr. John Lott, economist and author of “The War on Guns,” hadn’t brought it to their attention.

“I’m responsible for finding that out,” he told Guns.com during an interview Monday. “No other place in the south, or in the whole country, had this big increase in accidental deaths.”

Lott founded the Crime Prevention Research Center and is a favorite among gun rights group for his research linking lower crime rates to concealed carry laws. Gun control advocates pan his expertise and remain critical of his research methodology, featured in other best-selling books “More Guns, Less Crime” and “The Bias Against Guns,” among others.

The original data, released last month, reportedly showed Tennessee’s accidental firearm fatalities jumped from ninth in the nation in 2013 to the number one spot a year later. Some 105 people died in accidental shootings in 2014 compared with 19 the year before, according to the CDC.

The number outraged gun violence prevention groups, such as The Safe Tennessee Project, who blamed the dramatic spike on lax gun laws.

“Legislation could make such effective strategies as gun-safety locks, smart guns, or gun safes as common as seat belts are in cars,” said Jonathan Metzl, research director for the Safe Tennessee Project, in a Sept. 14 statement. “This data truly should be a wake-up call for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.”

Lott said he immediately questioned the data and wondered if a change in medical examiners or re-classification of suicides and accidental deaths could be to blame. “I just haven’t seen anything of that magnitude before,” he said.

A week later, Tennessee Deputy Commissioner for Population Health Dr. Michael Warren retracted the number, announcing instead only five people had died in 2014 from accidental shootings — a 15-year low for the state.
 

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