—– Original Message —–
From: “James
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2003 6:31 PM
Subject: FW: Short Questionnaire Helps Identify Youths With Access to Guns

> 66% were black and 31% hispanic – sounds like the CDC’s getting racist
> by targeting minority youth!
>
> —–Original Message—–
> From: John
> Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2003 11:44 AM
> Subject: Re: Short Questionnaire Helps Identify Youths With Access to
> Guns
>
>
> “Youths” aged 21 to 24 included in the survey are legally eligible to
> buy, own, possess and fire handguns and rifles, and those 18-21 longarms
> only. (Unless they are a prohibited person due to felony or domestic
> violence conviction, protective order subject, or a drug user, or
> prohibited by local
> (Chicago IL site of the test) laws disarming law abiding citizens.)
> So
> why is “38% believed it would be easy to obtain a gun” cause for alarm,
> unless of course you wanted to imply that “children” can illegally get
> guns.
> Did they ask similar questions about easy access to drugs? How easy
> it is to steal a car? (How many arrived in a stolen car seeking
> treatment for drug overdoses??)
> Just more attempt to demonize guns in any context by any means.
> Figures don’t lie, but liars figure….”
> John Spangler

> —– Original Message —–
> From:
> Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2003 11:13 AM
> Subject: FW: Short Questionnaire Helps Identify Youths With Access to
> Guns
>
>
> Big Doctor is watching you.
>
> Remember that the CDC is so busy with its anti-gun agenda that they
> woefully underestimated the 2003-04 flu epidemic.
>
> ———-
>
>
> Short Questionnaire Helps Identify Youths With Access to Guns
>
> Laurie Barclay, MD
>
>
>
> Dec. 19, 2003 < A seven-question screening tool may be reliable for
> identifying youths who have access to guns, according to the results of
> a study published in the December issue of the Southern Medical Journal.
>
> “New techniques with which to identify youths who have gun accessibility
> are important for understanding and planning interventions to reduce the
> risk of injuries caused by use of firearms,” write Leslie S. Zun, MD,
> MBA, and La Vonne Downey, PhD, from Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago,
> Illinois.
>
> Seven questions about gun accessibility, ownership, and usage were
> selected from a much longer questionnaire about access to guns, and both
> questionnaires were administered to 100 consenting subjects aged 10 to
> 24 years who presented to the emergency department for any complaint.
> Average age was 21 years, 39% were men, 66% were black, and 31% were
> Hispanic.
>
> Answers to all of the questions in the short screening tool were
> statistically similar to those in the long questionnaire, and both
> instruments revealed a low number of gun owners but a high level of gun
> accessibility and availability. Two youths had a gun; four knew of a gun
> in their home, garage, or car; 38% believed it would be easy to obtain a
> gun; and 25% believed that getting a gun would be impossible. None of
> the youths had shared ownership of a gun. In the past six months, 8% had
> fired a gun, and 24% had fired a gun more than six months ago.
>
> Study limitations include consecutive administration of both
> questionnaires during the same visit, a skewed study sample, lack of
> validation of the long gun surveys, limitations of the interview
> technique, the institutional review board requirement for consent, and
> potential falsification of answers for fear of legal prosecution.
>
> “This short questionnaire could be used to screen large numbers of
> youths who present to a health care setting to identify youths who have
> access to guns,” the authors write. “Screening of a large number of
> youths in the health care sector is the first step in reducing gun
> accessibility and, possibly, gun use.”
>
> South Med J. 2003;96:1238-1242
>
> Reviewed by Gary D. Vogin, MD
>