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Doctors vs. Gun Owners – The Statistics of Death

Written by Wellness Club on January 28, 2009 – 6:37 pm -

Doctors vs. Gun Owners

Commentary by Nurse Mark

This set of statistics has been circulating around the internet for a while – you have probably seen it. While it is certainly not politically correct (in light of our new Presidential Administration’s overall attitudes towards guns and gun owners) it does make one chuckle.

It also points out how statistics can be used and manipulated.

Just to get another view of these figures, I used the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) statistical engine to see what they had to say on the subject – and found that according to the CDC in 2005, in the United States, out of a population of 295,895,897,(All Races, Both Sexes, All Ages):

Adverse effects – Medical care Deaths and Rates per 100,000 were 2,309  for a rate of 0.78,

while

Unintentional Firearm Deaths and Rates per 100,000 were 789 for a rate of 0.27.

This is a little different way of looking at the statistics, but still an eye-opener.

Just to introduce a little perspective, I looked at the following:

Overall Motor Vehicle Deaths and Rates per 100,000 were 45,520 deaths for a rate of 15.38

(The above figures are courtesy of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control: http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html)

So, please remember to fasten you seatbelt every time you ride in a motor vehicle – and sit back, put a smile on, and enjoy a little irreverent, politically incorrect humor!

Doctors vs. Gunowners

Doctors	Gunowners
Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services	Statistics courtesy of FBI
The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000	The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000 (Yes, that’s right, 80 million)
Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year: 120,000	Accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups: 1,500
Accidental deaths per physician: 0.171	Accidental deaths per gun owner: 0.000188

So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

Remember, ‘Guns don’t kill people, doctors do.’

FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.

Please alert your friends to this alarming threat to our safety.

Though doctors are licensed and closely regulated in America this daily carnage continues unchecked – perhaps we should consider a ban on doctors before this gets completely out of hand. If it saved even one life it might be worth it to keep these dangerous tools of conventional medicine out of the hands of dangerous people!

Out of concern for the public at large, I’ve withheld the statistics on lawyers for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention!

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