4. Bad Stat of the Month

“The gun lobby has been talking for 40 minutes.
During that time, 40 people have died from the
use of small arms and light weapons in this country.”
(Mary Leigh Blek, Million Mom March, speaking at
the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade
in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects, Jul. 17).

Really? One death per minute would result in a
whopping 525,600 deaths per year. The actual number of
deaths from firearm injuries (homicide, suicide and
accident) in 1998 was 30,708. Ms. Blek’s figure is
off by about 1700 percent.

–Statistical Assessment Service
http://www.stats.org/newsletters/0108/guns.htm>