From: Sarah Thompson <righter@intele.net>
Subject: Letter to the Salt Lake Tribune
To: firearms-alert@shell.portal.com
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 1995 09:34:21 -0600 (MDT)

Dear fellow listmembers,
	I posted this several days ago, but it never showed up on the list.
Jeff never got a copy of it either.  If by some chance you DID, and this is
a duplicate, please send the FIRST copy to Jeff with the header intact.
Sorry about the confusion, and apologies if anyone got duplicates.
	Sarah


> Public Forum
> The Salt Lake Tribune
> PO Box 867
> Salt Lake City, UT 84110
> 801-237-2022
> 
> Dear Public Forum:
> 
>      Once again the Salt Lake Tribune is convicting guns (not
> criminals) for the violence in our society and calling it "news".
>      On June 19 you reported that Utah has the fourth highest
> suicide rate in the country and that a Task Force is being
> created to study this problem.  However, you then leap ahead into 
> speculation and attribute this to the easy availability of firearms,
> without regard to published studies or the task force's report.  
>      It is true that the majority of the 38,000 gun deaths
> reported annually are due to suicide.  However, as Gary Kleck has
> shown (Kleck, G.; Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America), when guns 
> are not available the rate of suicide by other means increases so that 
> there is no net decrease in suicide.  This would be obvious from even 
> a cursory study of other nations where guns are tightly controlled, 
> such as Japan.
>      On June 20, you report on the paper by Kenneth Kizer, MD on
> medical costs related to firearms injuries.  Gunshot wounds of
> course do contribute to medical costs, although it is interesting that 
> hospitals make a 10% PROFIT on these injuries.  However, these statistics 
> must be compared with the number of injuries and deaths prevented by 
> firearms. 
>      Between 1 and 2.5 million Americans use guns to protect
> themselves and their families and of those 400,000 believe their
> lives were saved by the use of preventive firearms.  This is 10 times 
> the total number of people killed with guns.  As many as 65 lives are 
> saved for every life lost to a gun.  This in fact results in a huge 
> decrease in medical costs as well as human costs.
>      If the Tribune feels it necessary to continue to editorialize 
> about guns, please limit your opinions to the Editorial pages.  
> Otherwise, please check your "facts" for accuracy.  Thank you.
> 
> 
>                                    Sarah Thompson, M.D.
>                                    Director, Women's Affairs
>                                    Doctors for Integrity in
> 					Policy Research, Inc.
>                                    (an independent, non-profit
> 					organization)
> 
>