7/29/2019 Cover Letter to the Firearm Data Analysis

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To: ________________________

From: Edward Crowell, PO Box 216, Cedar Rapids, IA 52406

Re: Gun Control

The attached report is my own, individual work. I am not affiliated with, a

member, or employee of any political or advocacy organization about gun control (for or

against), nor has it be prepared at any person or groups’ request. 

I did the work myself and paid for the printing myself.

Because it is important.

My own background includes a Master of Science degree in Analytical Chemistry.

My graduate research involved statistical analysis of data collected from humancancerous tissue samples. The method used was more complex than used here, but

similar in principle, using correlation analysis to determine if a sample was normal or

cancerous based on correlation calculations related to known tissue samples. I also have a

law degree and have been a practicing attorney in Iowa for six years.

The ongoing gun control debate means that the information and arguments I have

developed are constantly evolving. Recently I replied to the issue of training

requirements. Since I had already prepared the attached report, I will summarize those

results here.

I have heard many calls that gun owners should be trained to make sure they are

properly trained, responsible, and safe. This is nonsense. Using CDC fatal and non-fatal

injury data for firearms (available at http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/ ) we can get

numbers for fatal and non-fatal, unintentional, firearm injuries. We want fatal and non-

fatal so we cover everyone who got shot. Firearms specifically because that’s what gun

control is concerned with. Unintentional because, nominally, that is what training will

address. I say this because training will not stop someone who knows what they are doingwrong and intend to do it. They already know they shouldn’t and do it anyway. So

training must be aimed at unintentional injuries. Accidents would be a common word for

it, but unintentional is more accurate. Averaged across the available years, there are 694.9

unintentional firearm deaths per year. Averaged across the available years, there are

7/29/2019 Cover Letter to the Firearm Data Analysis

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309.8 unintentional non-fatal firearm injuries per year. Added together, that makes

1004.72, on average, unintentional shootings per year.

There are an estimated 270,000,000 guns in the US. Let’s assume each of those

unintentional shootings was caused by a different gun. And that each of those guns wasowned by a different person. No multiple injuries, no repeat offenders (which is provably

false, but these assumptions maximize the number of negligent guns and gun owners).

So, 1004.72 unintentional shootings a year. For easy math, call it 1000. 270,000,000

guns, we’ll also round that down to 250,000,000. To get the rate of negligent gun owners

we divide: 1000/250,000,000 = 1/250,000.

That’s right. One in two hundred fifty thousand gun owners. The other 249,999

gun owners didn’t cause unintentional injuries. However, the proposed laws affect them

too. Restricting 249,999 people because of the unintentional acts of 1 is ludicrous.Further, training cannot guarantee reduction, so maybe you reduce the unintentional

injuries. The problem is, it’s unintentional. They didn’t mean to do anything wrong and

didn’t realize they were. Training won’t fix it and even if it did, requiring everyone to get

to that one person is not reasonable. That is over inclusive, a blanket restriction to address

a tiny population.

And a bad idea.

I am not a paid advocate. I do have the relevant experience to support what I say. Iprovide my data sources and my methods. I have used a method verifiable by nearly

everyone. I provide my contact information and will answer questions and provide the

exact data and spreadsheets I used if asked.

No tricks. No misdirection. No hand waving and no hiding behind complexity.

Gun control does not work even based on its own claims.

Sincerely

__________________

Edward Crowell