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From: shallit@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Jeff Shallit)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Congratulations to the NRA
Message-ID: <504@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 24-Jun-85 12:13:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.504
Posted: Mon Jun 24 12:13:04 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Jun-85 08:06:20 EDT
References: <484@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP> <166@idsvax.UUCP> <> <494@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP> <>
Reply-To: shallit@gargoyle.UUCP (Jeff )
Organization: U. Chicago - Computer Science
Lines: 28
Summary: 

>> = Jeff Shallit
> = Don Steiny

>> The truth is that decreased availability of handguns would cut the suicide
>> rate, especially among males.  
>
>	The truth is that you believe that that would be true, but
>that you have no way of knowing.   It is increasingly clear that
>what you mean by "true" is that you agree with it.
>

Nice try, Don.  You have conveniently ignored the two paragraphs above my
statement, which cited evidence from the suicide rate decline in England
after the carbon monoxide content of natural gas decreased, and the
differential in suicide rates between men and women, due primarily to
the wider use of handguns by men.

But we don't have to be content with such secondary pieces of evidence.  
A study in the American Journal of Psychiatry (1980) entitled "The
Influence of Gun Control Laws on Suicidal Behavior" found that
"states with stricter gun control laws in 1968 had lower suicide rates
in 1969-1971 and a smaller increase in the suicide rate over a 10-year
period".

What say now, Don?

Jeff Shallit
University of Chicago