I continue to be impressed with the quality of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) news feed. Its authors provide thoughtful and respectful commentary on firearms policy the equal of any current policy blog. A recent NRA-ILA News report on a research article in the respected journal Science validates what we've discussed here before-the social sciences have a serious academic research integrity problem. And that means a serious credibility problem. ...

There’s no greater sensation than when members of the media become victims.  Their deaths are tragedies that cause the same grief thousands of families suffer each year from the homicide of their loved ones (over 16,000 in 2013).  But attacks such as the killing of Alison Parker and Adam Ward and the wounding of Vicki Garner August 27, happening in the ordinary course of their work and viewed on live TV while their attacker recorded his brutality, multiply the impact of such assault far beyo...

Some weeks it’s hard to decide which new anti-gun “study” to dismember.  The problem is that there is so much propaganda coming so fast and furiously.  It’s like lobbing a lot of crude missiles at a target hoping to do some damage even though none of them are explosive. I can’t recommend too highly Chris Cox’s NRA-ILA report of August 26, “Weird Science” as a brief guide to the junk science that is the last resort of a cause sailing a leaky boat.  As Cox says, watch out for “cherry-pickin...

I find it helpful to look back occasionally at our progress in the culture war waged by organized medicine against gun owners.  The players change and language evolves, generally in an attempt to mask the gun-grabbers’ true intentions.  But one force for gun control has remained constant.  The American Medical Association (AMA) still wants to ban gun ownership by regular citizens, although it will still vigorously deny it, even as it moves toward its goal. Even today, the public still vie...

Gun prohibitionists have raged since 2008 over the astounding setback they suffered in 2008 with the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion District of Columbia v. Heller.  No sooner had they picked themselves up off the mat than the court delivered the second punch in the form of the 2010 decision McDonald v. Chicago.  Heller affirmed the individual right to own guns for self-defense, and McDonald clarified that Heller applied also to the states and lesser jurisdictions. Together, they are the two...

[Editor's Note: The following article from Dr. Miguel Faria, published in January, 2013 by Surgical Neurology International, is available at haciendapub.com and is republished here with the author's permission.] The debate on the role of firearms in society has returned with a fury in the United States and the world with the latest shooting rampage in Connecticut. Politicians are once again calling for gun control without examining other psychosocial factors that play a tremendous role in...

Let me start off with a definition - "Cultural Competence". The concept of cultural competence or cultural awareness is a very important one in the field of medicine and patient care. Put simply, it involves being aware of, respectful of, and sensitive to, the culture of the population that one serves. This is an important component of effective patient care, whether one is practicing in Alaska, Puerto Rico, or Appalachia. As important as this concept is, I'm going to go out on a limb her...

(They’re Not Veterans or Social Security Recipients) In “Who Are the Mass Murderers?” (executive summary: an infinitesimal, unpredictable fraction of the population), we reviewed the characteristics of mass murderers, insofar as there are any common ones.  We need to keep in mind the “infinitesimal” attribute.  According to a new Congressional Research Study, only 0.004 percent of all deaths, or 0.66 percent of murder victims occur during mass shootings.  That’s less than 2% of all non-fire...