> Andy: "Again, the public health research cited suggests otherwise at least
> for the
> population as a whole. (For you and me I'd guess that it's negligible.):
>
> [WS:] I think that the main problem here is that homicide and violence
> result from many factors and at the same time they are sufficiently rare
> events - which makes it virtually impossible to analytically separate the
> effect of gun ownership from all other factors. So all we can do is to
> repeat ad nauseam anecdotal evidence supporting our positions on the issue.
>
An alternative would be to look at what serious research has been done on the subject, which near as I can tell is based on statistical methods and addresses the issue of substitution. I haven't studied it in detail, but if you know of literature that suggests otherwise I would be interested in references.
-- Andy "It's a testament to ketchup that there can be no confusion."