Friends and fans,
Today's Arizona Republic (10/17/00, page B6) carries my letter concerning the "Gun Violence Forum," basically a pithy 200-word summary of the report I issued last week.
The piece appears as I wrote it, although the title was changed from "Violence Forum Has Potential" to "Attack Guns Not Owners."
Space constraints prevented me from including two of the most salient elements, but I'm sure the anti-rights people will find plenty to complain about anyway. The missing portions would have read:
"Every single day 270 people wake up dead because their doctors killed them, but all you hear about year after year are the same 12 students from a school a thousand miles away. Imagine how dramatically our perception and public policy would change if news reports shifted focus. Look how that horribly distorted focus is destroying our rights and our way of life."
and
" The organizers of the "Gun Violence Forum" make a basic, self-evident mistake. For in focusing solely on the costs associated with harm perpetrated with firearms, they overlook the harm prevented by the use of firearms. Any conclusion they draw based solely on costs leaves them open to obvious charges of junk science. It is the net effect, not solely the cost or benefit, that has validity."
And perhaps I should also point out that fundamental human rights are not subject to cost-benefit analysis in the first place.
Alan.