The Myth of the Good Guy With a Gun

[MechAg94]

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2015/01/good_guy_with_a_gun_myth_guns_increase_the_risk_of_homicide_accidents_suicide.single.html

For your entertainment.  

I saw this posted on another site.  It was entertaining to look at some of the links and statistics to see how twisted and misleading most of it was.  I did not see any studies that actually used FBI statistics, but I could be wrong on that.  It seemed to rely almost exclusively on intenational studies with what I would term as invalid comparrisons.  

I wonder if we could work up a Gun Control Bingo game for when articles like this come up.  

1.  Mixing self defense and suicide:  Yes.
2.  Comparing police statistics between different countries with different laws and reporting rules:  Yes.
3.  Comparing different countries with different self defense and ownership laws:  Yes.
4.  No direct references to FBI crime statistics:  Yes.

I guess I could be wrong on a couple, but that is what I got from a brief read and look at some links. 

[MicroBalrog]

The fact this is hosted in their "health and science" area is already a warning light.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

The fact that it's hosted by Slate is already a warning light.

[MechAg94]

The title of the opinion piece is a warning no matter where it is.  It is still entertaining to see that much misinformation crammed into a fairly short piece.