Sunday, December 12, 2010

Cherry-Picking

Or just plain lying.

First, read SayUncle's Quote of the Day.

Then, read Joe Huffman's Quote of the Day.

Then, read the article Joe's QotD comes from.

The specific bit I'd like to point out from an article ostensibly about the accidental death of an eight-year-old is this:
Data collected by the Centre For Disease Control And Prevention shows that on an average day, three American children die in gun accidents or suicides.
(Emphasis mine.)

Are they intimating here that young Christopher Bizilj intentionally shot himself?

I went to the CDC's WISQARS site to check on their statistics.  Let's stipulate that "children" are 17 years old or younger.  Accidental deaths by firearm for children up through 17 years of age for the year 2007 (latest data available):  112.  Suicide by firearm for children up through 17 years of age for the same year:  325.  Combined, 437.

Four hundred thirty-seven divided by three hundred sixty-five is (carry the one):  not quite 1.2 per day.

Not three (3).  Not two (2).  One point two.

And to get THAT number, they have to combine accidents AND SUICIDES, where suicides represent THREE QUARTERS of the total.

I have to ask again:  The real numbers are bad enough - why must they inflate them?

(Edited to add)  More of the same here:
Meanwhile, the shootings continue – more than 30,000 deaths a year, most of them individual killings that are barely reported,
That's because more than half of them are suicides, by definition "individual killings" that don't merit much reporting seeing that the US is firmly in the middle-of-the-road for suicide rates, and at the lower-end for high GDP nations.

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