Monday, May 24, 2010

Every county in Iowa is "urban"

At least according to a study comparing urban and rural gun deaths that was released today in the journal "Pediatrics"
The researchers sorted them by county and then compared the gun death rates for the most urban counties (those with populations of 1 million or more) and the most rural counties (the ones far from cities or with fewer than 2,500 people). They found essentially the same rate: about four deaths per 100,000 children.

Gun death rates among children similar in rural areas, big cities, study says
According to census records found at Iowa Data Center every county has had a population greater than 2500 since 1890. In other words, according to this "study", the whole state is one big urban center.

With a study that can't determine that Iowa is a rural state (with a few pockets urbanized), how can we trust anything that this guy is stating, such as:
"This debunks the myth that firearm death is a big-city problem," said lead author Michael Nance, a doctor at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "This is everybody's problem." The findings were published in Monday's issue of the journal Pediatrics.
He does get one thing right, crappy research is definitely everybody's problem.

6 comments:

Borepatch said...


Indeed, there is a thesis to be written, somewhere, on why so many of the most famous works on guns involve statistical malpractice, deliberate distortion, or outright lying.

strandediniowa said...

Thanks for dropping that off, Borepatch.

"Now, it is possible that having a gun is actually on net dangerous to you and your family. But we have no evidence to support this notion, because all the statistics on the subject are crap. The denominator is what criminologists call a "dark number": one where there is no way to arrive at any reasonably credible estimate of its value."

Interesting and worthy of more reading.

Bawb said...

Oh come on now, guys. It's the anti's prerogative. Hell, Michael Bellesiles just outright fabricated sources out of thin air to write Arming America. And, if you're far left enough, a scholarly peer review of your work doesn't even notice that all your footnotes are fictional!

Some animals are more equal than others.

Borepatch said...

Sadly, Bawb, the "peer review" process is terribly flawed (we we see with the Global Warming debate).

And the bias does indeed slant one way.

straightarrow said...

Are you aware that 78.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot?







I, uh,,, just made that up.

strandediniowa said...

And I bet 34.8% of the public believes you, SA.

Maybe.