January 18, 2013

Research Europe Reporter: Hi Dr. Faria, I am a reporter for Research Europe, and I cover US research and science policy news. I am hoping to speak with you today because I am writing an article about the fact that President Obama has issued a memorandum directing the CDC and other scientific agencies to research the causes and prevention of gun violence, loosening the current restrictions on federal funding in that field.

David Oedel is incorrect in his assertion (“A right to armed revolt?”, 1/27) that Justice Scalia’s opinion in D.C. vs. Heller limits the right to keep and bear arms to weapons “in common use at the time” the Second Amendment was ratified. In fact, in his decision Justice Scalia  characterizes such arguments as “bordering on the frivolous.”

Pediatrician asks 13-year-old girl whether her parents smoke or own a gun, how much alcohol they drink, whether they use drugs, and how her parents “get along.” Neither parent was present during the questioning, as would be required if the girl were accused of a crime.
− News Item

Abstract — Gun violence and, most recently, senseless shooting rampages continue to be sensitive and emotional points of debate in the American media and the political establishment. The United Nations is already set to commence discussing and approving its Small Arms Treaty in March 2013. And following the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy in the United States this past December, American legislators are working frantically to pass more stringent gun control laws in the U.S. Congress.

In a recent article, Bill Ferguson, a local columnist for The Telegraph (Macon, Georgia), attempts to give readers a strong political soporific, as to deaden their need to remain informed and vigilant when it comes to guarding their Second Amendment rights from usurpation by a UN treaty.(1) But before that, he takes a swipe at conservatives, while intimating that he himself is a moderate Republican and was even a Romney supporter in the last election.(2) Once again, we have a liberal writer masquerading as a reluctant Republican or centrist, as to make his snake oil elixir a bit mo

In Part I of this three-part series I laid out the background and general intentions of public health gun control activists in the early years of their campaign. In this part we relate the events that led to exposure of the Centers for Disease Control in its crucial roles.

That [public health researchers] prefer the term “gun violence” is revealing
of their mind set in approaching the problem, because it puts the emphasis
on guns and not on the humans who misuse them.
Dr. Timothy Wheeler, Director,
Doctors for Responsibie Gun Ownership (DRGO)

Georg Hegel (1770-1831), the father of dialectical idealism, which Karl Marx transmogrified as Marxist dialectical materialism, lamented that what we do learn from history is that man does not learn its lessons!

AJC Reporter (Questions): Hello — This is Craig Schneider with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution [AJC]. I am writing a story on the controversy surrounding gun-related research, and I would greatly appreciate if you would give me a call.

Dr. Miguel Faria (Answers): Hi Craig, I received your questions and have arranged them in a question and answer format for convenience.

The latest shooting rampage of 26 people, including six adults and 20 children in an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, is a senseless tragedy, and words cannot convey the horror and the magnitude of the loss of innocent life. The second deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was carried out by 20-year-old Adam Lanza (photo, left), a loner with a personality disorder — and in critical need of psychiatric evaluation and treatment.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then.

— Thomas Jefferson

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.

— Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles
of the Federal Constitution, 1787

DATELINE: Warsaw, Poland, 1943

In the wake of President Barack Obama's re-election on November 6, 2012, and the virtual demoralization of Republicans, it is important to recognize that the political mastery of the left does not last forever. Moreover, three new conservative, pro-Second Amendment senators and several freshmen representatives were elected. A solid Republican majority was preserved in the House of Representatives. So, the election did not mean complete defeat for the GOP.

The need for reducing gun violence is discussed along with the necessity for citizens to assume some responsibility for protecting themselves, their families, and their property from criminal elements because the police cannot physically be everywhere to protect us all of the time. The problem of sensationalization of gun crimes by the media, multiple shootings by deranged individuals, accidents with firearms, suicide rates, and children with guns are discussed.

Abstract — The AMA Council on Scientific Affairs did not conduct a rigorous scientific evaluation before supporting a ban on assault weapons.  The Council appears to have unquestioningly accepted common misperceptions and even partisan misrepresentations regarding the nature and uses of assault weapons.  This article examines the pivotal issues and proposes a rational approach to gun control and more effectual measures to reduce violence in our society.

To read entire article, click the link below:

"Violence in America — Effective Soutions" by Suter EA, Waters WC, Murray GB, et al. was originally published in the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia, Volume 85, June 1995, pp 253-263 while Dr. Miguel A. Faria served as Editor-in-Chief of that medical journal. The following link is provided for readers who wish to read the entire article: http://rkba.org/research/suter/violence.html.

Abstract — Errors of fact, design, and interpretation abound in the medical literature on guns and violence. The peer review process has failed to prevent publication of the errors of politicized, results-oriented research. Most of the data on guns and violence are available in the criminological, legal, and social sciences literature, yet escapes acknowledgment or analysis of the medical literature.

Deja Vu in Medical Care

Science is concerned with the acquisition of knowledge and the pursuit of certainty, elusive as these noble goals may be, in contradistinction to bolstering ignorance, superstition, or willful misunderstanding. After all, science is charged with the attainment of general truths and the solving of the riddle of the mechanics and operations of the general laws of the universe.

The lessons of history clearly demonstrate to those of us who care to look that whenever science and medicine have come to be under the heavy hand of government, political pressures, or subordinated to the state, the results have been as perverse as they have been disastrous. Towards this end, I would like to share with you an egregious chapter on the perversion of science in the name of politics and ideology that has come down to us from the recent historic record.

The 1991 American Medical Association (AMA) campaign against domestic violence (and towards gun control) launched for public relations and media consumption went hand in hand with a previously articulated (1979) U.S. Public Health Service objective of complete eradication of handguns in America, beginning with a 25% reduction in the national inventory by the year 2000!(1)

As a physician, I have always been a staunch supporter of public health in its traditional role of fighting pestilential diseases and promoting health by educating the public as to hygiene, sanitation, and preventable diseases, as alluded to in my book, Vandals at the Gates of Medicine; but I deeply resent the workings of that unrecognizable part of public health incarnated in the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) with its politicized agenda and proclivity towards result-oriented research based on junk science.

Et domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium.
Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634)

The Legacy of Revolutions

March 2, 1999

Philip R. Fine, PhD, MSPH
Director
Injury Control Research Center
University of Alabama at Birmingham
CH 19 403, UAB Station
Birmingham, AL 35294-2041

Dear Dr. Fine:

Thank you for your invitation to comment on the videotaped presentation given recently by Dr. David Reynolds. As a full-time practicing surgeon I have operated on my share of patients with gunshot injuries. I share Dr. Reynolds's desire to mitigate the violence done to people and to our society as a result of firearm misuse.

Dear Physicians,
For years, organized medicine has been misusing its authority to turn the public against firearms owners. Prestigious medical journals have abandoned their usually strict peer review standards to publish junk science articles written by anti-gun activists with medical degrees. Their purpose? As one pediatrician put it, to convince Americans that 64 guns are a virus to be eradicated."

Last August, the rugged Aussie survivalist whose real life exploits inspired the "Crocodile Dundee" movies died in what then appeared to be a mysterious shootout with Australian police. A police sergeant was also killed in the incident. It was reported that Rodney William Ansell, the 44-year-old, blond haired Aussie, resembled uncannily Paul Hogan the actor who played his part in the movie and the sequel.

In Hawaii, gun control bill SB 2151, which passed the Senate and now awaits House consideration, will create among other things a gun owners ID card system, require the re-registration of all firearms, and mandate the release of confidential medical records to law enforcement. HB 1880 that passed the House and awaits Senate approval, on the other hand, will require all registered firearm owners to provide their local chief of police with a list of all firearms currently in their possession.

Another letter which did not make it to the pages of the politically correct medical journals was one I wrote to the Western Journal of Medicine (WJM) in regards to an editorial subtitled, "Physicians are morally obligated to help prevent gun violence," published in the November/December 1999 issue.

The editorial was an unscientific diatribe promoting gun control typical of what is being increasingly published in the medical literature by the public health establishment.

December 28, 1999
Dear WJM Editor,

While the CDC and Arthur Kellermann, M.D. have been siginificantly slowed in their gun prohibitionist agenda (see Medical Sentinel 1997;2(2):46-53 and 1997;2(3):81-86, and the references cited therein), others have picked up the gun control agenda under the pretended theme of "finding solutions to the problem of guns and violence in America."

Guns and Suicide

Dear Editor,
Just to illustrate from personal experience that British laws are a bit out of hand...I recently traveled to Greece, and had a short layover in Heathrow Airport in England. While there, I was detained, searched, and questioned by MP5 (machine gun) carrying officers because my keychain was considered a dangerous and illegal weapon by the British government. (Any of you familiar with a Kubaton keychain will immediately recognize the awesome power and obvious threat made by this heinous weapon of mass destruction....)