Gun Smoke
However, we feel that Henderson’s discussion missed a point that is just as crucial: handguns raise the risk of death by increasing the lethality of whatever else is going on. This is why, as he says, gun injuries are not exactly like motor vehicle injuries. Thus, if someone is interested in committing suicide, the availability of a handgun makes death a more likely outcome; in a community wracked by violence, the ubiquity of handguns causes rampant homicide. This mechanism explains most of the counterarguments Henderson raised to our contention that handguns are the agent in this current plague.
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Third, we do not agree that advising people to keep handguns out of reach is the same thing as predicting nuclear war after the 1984 election. When we get beyond this ad hominem argument against medical people like us getting involved in policy matters, it does not seem an illegitimate kind of activity at all.
Chair, HELP Network
Robert R. Tanz, MD
Children’s Memorial Medical Center
