15 June 2025

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

In this case, anti-gun statistics. I tried to solve the great gun mystery at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. It didn't go well | Opinion

This story is was published a few months back, but I think it is still worth a look. There are not too many stories like this that make me smile; they usually just make me mad.

The anti-gun crowd always talks about "Children and Teens," an age group of 1 to 17. They used to throw in 18 and sometimes 19 year olds, but they have gotten beaten up enough to stop that. 18 year olds are legal adults, not children.

You wouldn't think it would be hard to get the world's leading gun violence researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to tell you what the leading cause of death is for children. At least, you know, if it actually was firearms.

That Johns Hopkins organization is the Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Gun Violence Solutions. The name is important to note, because it indicates that they may have a particular bias. (They do.)

Maybe I should have issued a spoiler alert, because as you might guess firearms are NOT the leading cause of death in children 1 to 9 years of age. But this isn't really about the data, though it is included, this is about how much people with an agenda will do to cover up the data if it disagrees with their premise, and that they will not answer simple questions that don't slant in a particular way. In this case the author of the piece, David Mastio, asked for a simple clarification of some of the data.

The first thing officials did was dispute that they had said anything about children age 1 to 9. "I am not quite sure where the age range you‘re mentioning is coming from," wrote their PR guy, a former TV journalist. So I told him it was hidden on Page 1 of the 22-page report.

They scheduled conference calls that got canceled. They ignored emails. They stonewalled.

When he showed up to get an interview...

Two very polite and very plump ladies from campus security complete with official looking badges came to escort me from the building.

I headed back to the school's garage, walking by red banners that said in big white letters, "BLOOMBERG SCHOOL PROUD TO BE IN PUBLIC HEALTH." This was surely a proud day for the Bloomberg School, I thought.

In the end he did get the data, but not from the Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Gun Violence Solutions. The Center on Injury Research and Policy got him the data in a matter of hours.

There is more, and you should click thru for the answer to, What is the leading cause of death in children 1 to 9 years of age?" It isn't firearms. You should also click thru because what he had to go through is presented in an entertaining fashion, and it is a short read.

the Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Gun Violence Solutions clearly has an agenda to serve. (Hence the Warren Buffett quote at the start of this post.) If they told you that the primary cause of death for teens, 10 to 17 years old were firearms, you might associate that age group with bad behavior in general and gang activity in particular. And that wouldn't help them convince you to give up your liberty. But if they throw 1 to 9 year-olds into the mix, then they can scream, "Won't anyone think of the children?" That will usually move people who are not paying attention.

1 comment:

  1. He should write to John’s Hopkins and tell them what he found since they obviously don’t know.

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