Quoted: Though this has been posted hundreds of times here, I'm never able to stomach how absurd such a comparison it is. It doesn't make gun-laws look lame, it makes the person making the comparison look lame.
First of all, comparing # of doctors to # of gun-owners is apples and oranges. It SHOULD be the # of people who visit doctors each year, not the # of doctors. That would at least be a little bit closer to a relevant comparison. And then the statement "NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR" just contradicts everything before it and underscores the lameassness of this whole comparison - you should be comparing the # of people who have a doctor to the # of people who have a firearm!
Secondly, accidental firearm-deaths is under 800/year. It'd be nice if even the basic facts were correct.
Sorry but because this gets posted at least once every month or two, I've just grown weary of seeing such lameness pass by over and over.
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I had the exact same reaction as you - this post irritates me enromously (not you, Donna, but the content).
The numbers are so ridiculously off, it is pathetic. The notion that 120,000 accidental deaths are caused by physicians each year is totally harebrained.
For example, here are the causes of death for 2001:
- Heart Disease: 696,947
- Cancer: 557,271
- Stroke: 162,672
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 124,816
- Accidents (unintentional injuries): 106,742
- Diabetes: 73,249
- Influenza/Pneumonia: 65,681
- Alzheimer's disease: 58,866
- Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 40,974
- Septicemia: 33,865
(note when they say "accidents" they mean car crashes, falls, etc - not medical malpractice)
I find it completely unbelievable that doctor negligence would make up such a large proportion.
- although certainly some negligence deaths are undoubtedly "hidden" within these numbers.
I also can find no states on the Health and Human Services webpage - which would be strange anyway, since it's the NCHS or CDC that would most likely keep such statistics. So I'm willing to conclude that the numbers are COMPLETELY MADE UP.
It also is the worst analogy ever - since people VOLUNTARILY go see the doctor, but rarely voluntarily get shot. As such, if people worry about this, they can CHOOSE to not see a doctor, but cannot choose not to get shot.