Letter to the editor: Sources on gun data biased?

Regarding Rep. Dan Frankel’s op-ed “Congratulations on your new gun. Now lock it up.” (March 25, TribLIVE): Frankel is wrong when he states that a gun in the home makes you less safe. The supporting studies he cites inevitably lead to the 1993 CDC-funded Kellerman study, which is a highly biased, discredited, textbook example of how to construct a study for a predetermined conclusion.

For example, the study only looks at firearm deaths of home occupants and criminals, ignoring other much more common nonlethal defensive gun use. Per a 1995 study by Gary Kleck, the most common type of defensive gun use (over 90%) is just showing the weapon, scaring the criminal away. The Kellerman study was so biased and poorly constructed that it led to Congress in 1996 passing the Dickey Amendment that prevents the CDC from advocating or promoting gun control.

Also, if more guns make us less safe, then why did the FBI’s 2018 violent crime report show the U.S. at a record low rate of violent crime, yet we now have a record high number of firearms in private hands? Add to this that every country that has banned guns has seen an increase in violent crime rates, including murder.

I recommend that Frankel find better, unbiased sources of data before he opines again.

David Root

San Antonio, Texas