Letter to the Editor: Ohio’s gun-death data questionable, at best
January 22, 2004
Columbus Dispatch
Why would The Dispatch publish the Jan. 9 article with the headline "Ohio fares poorly on firearms safety"? This headline would have summarized the article much better: "Groups that wish to ban private firearms ownership unhappy with Ohioans exercising constitutionally protected rights."
Between 2000, when Ohio had a C rating, and 2004, when Ohio received a D, was there any significant increase in gun deaths? How was the "fact" arrived at that death rates were 33 percent higher for F-rated states than for A- and B-rated states?
A quick check by the Dispatch staff into FBI statistics would reveal the truth. The newspaper has an obligation to check facts before printing them. Death rates did not and have not changed upon passage of Ohio’s concealed-carry law. This law has not even been implemented, yet these groups state that it would have changed our safety rating. How scientific is that? There is no valid scientific correlation between these anti-constitutional, gun-banning groups’ ratings and firearms safety.
I wonder how many people besides myself subscribe to The Dispatch just for the Sunday coupons.
ROBERT W. HAMMOND III
Marysville
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