The bad science behind gun control

Owning a gun is more likely to get you shot, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. Jacob Sullum at Reason says maybe, just maybe, those likely to get shot are more likely to own guns.

In Philadelphia, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania find, possessing a gun is strongly associated with getting shot. Since "guns did not protect those who possessed them," they conclude, "people should rethink their possession of guns." This is like noting that possessing a parachute is strongly associated with being injured while jumping from a plane, then concluding that skydivers would be better off unemcumbered by safety equipment designed to slow their descent. "Can this study possibly be as stupid as it sounds?" asks Stewart Baker at Skating on Stilts. Having shelled out $30 for the privilege of reading the entire article, which appears in the November American Journal of Public Health, I can confirm that the answer is yes.

The researchers admit that they didn't look at reverse causation. Which pretty much invalidates their entire study.

Transparency Chic

Here's a little known Transparency fact, "The dream of state-provided transparency goes back as least as far as Abraham Lincoln, who established the Government Printing Office, which disseminates documents like the Congressional Record, on his first day in office in 1861." Printing and distributing for free a printed record may have been a novel idea at the time. But times and technology have changed. Sadly much of our government has been stuck in 1860's thinking and hasn't kept up with the possibilities of the digital age.

Someday your government may have as little privacy as you do.

Katherine Mangu-Ward
AUGUST 21, 2009, 1:03 P.M. ET

Newborn babies have their own blogs and grandmothers are on Facebook. We Google potential dates. Privacy is dead. But one kind of information is still cozily locked away, safe from prying eyes: the law. President Obama may have come to Washington promising greater transparency, but progress has been less than impressive.

While the feds stumble toward openness, geeks and developers who made oversharing a way of life are bringing their can-do attitude to government transparency. Can't find what you're looking for on Regulation.gov? Try the new, user-friendlier OpenRegs.com. Frustrated by the terrible interface of Obama's Recovery.gov? Check out the easily-searchable Recovery.org. (more)