Firearms are misused a minute fraction of the time; that is vastly exceeded by the good uses they overwhelmingly have, at times uniquely life-saving. Most studies never adequately consider the contribution of increased legal gun access to preventing criminal violence (which is far the greatest cause of shootings). When there is enough ambiguity to claim an anti-gun conclusion, there is also enough evidence to discount it. (more…)

B. L. Brown is a police officer who wrote Rules of Engagement about trying to understand and improve police-citizen interactions. The book has several notable successes and some shortfalls. There are several references to Georgia law, reflecting the author’s base, but she is careful to point out that other states may employ different terms, and in fact may have different legislation. The introduction explains that this will be a conversational text. She then begins with a very useful glos...

I had a chance to offer my Mom a little advice recently.  She was upset with someone.  She told me what had occurred, and asked what I thought she should say. I suggested that rather than simply trying to decide what to say, she needed to first determine what she wanted to accomplish.  Without doing that, there would be no rational basis for assessing possible courses of action and deciding which provided the highest likelihood of accomplishing her goal.  (more…)

I personally am getting heartsick over reading stories like this. "Accidents" such as this one are not really accidents. They are more like negligence. Unintentional negligence to be sure, but negligence nonetheless. But what drives the negligence? Ignorance? Stubbornness? Denial? Surely no one gets out of bed in the morning announcing that they intend to have a mental lapse that day which will lead to the death of someone they love. Yet it still happens. (more…)

As predictable as hurricanes in September, hoplophobic media outlets have jumped on the Las Vegas mass shooting as an excuse to wheel out their favorite gun control nostrums.  For its October 3rd article, “Calls Grow for CDC to Resume Gun Violence Research”, New York City-based MedPage Today interviewed eleven anti-gun rights advocacy researchers and organized medicine spokespersons.  For an appearance of balance, the lead author interviewed one pro-gun rights doctor—me. (more…)

[Ed: Back from Dallas, we’re posting our presentations this week. You can also watch us in living color at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmyEJ7KJMIs] As many of you know, I abhor gun free zones, in general and in hospitals, in particular. Over the past year we have seen more violence against health care workers both in and out of hospitals: Terrorist attack in Kabul (more…)

[Ed: Back from Dallas, we’re posting our presentations this week. You can also watch us in living color at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmyEJ7KJMIs] Do we need crisis in this country to pull us together?  It seems that the citizens of this country pull together after a tragedy.  What has been happening over the past year is a travesty and personally, I would say un-American.  When supposedly peaceful demonstrators begin to attack other demonstrators, that's not demonstrating that’s ri...

[Ed: Back from Dallas, we’re posting our presentations this week. You can also watch us in living color at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmyEJ7KJMIs] DRGO is going beyond advocacy and watchdog activities, and taking action to support peoples’ right not to be lectured or recorded regarding their gun ownership. We are introducing 2Adoc.com in order to protect Second Amendment rights and privacy in the relationship between patients and their doctors. This means helping people find prov...