Another alleged gun study from the Violence Policy Center goes *poof*
I and former co-blogger Thibodeaux pretty much took down the Violence Policy Center’s alleged study entitled Officer Down, which looks at police killed with weapons that look like assault weapons. We noted that:
Also, PGP noted that the VPC was grossly over exaggerating the number as more police were killed by vehicular assault than with rifles, much less semi-automatic rifles with bayonet lugs and pistol grips.
Well, it turns out they’ve put out another bogus study called Drive-By America that ranks states by the number of drive by shootings. Turns out this fine piece of academic excellence was based on Google searches. Sebastian notes that they likely did the study this way because they have no money. Bitter says: Violence Policy Center might need to remember that people smart enough to make lots of money to donate to them are also smart enough to know that a Google search is not a study.
Update: Crossposted at NSH because Google News Alerts are cool.
August 7th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Bloggers come and go, but blog posts live forever!
August 7th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Come on, man! How can you say that isn’t a scientific study? They got PIE CHARTS!
August 7th, 2007 at 11:41 am
And, I love the way they led off with the list of other “studies” they’ve released. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they were trying to create the illusion of having footnotes.
Then they go on to cite the number of news sources used by Google News, as if that makes their study more legit.
This is too f****** funny.
August 7th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Hey, this is fun.
August 7th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I just sent the VPC and e-mail asking them why they continue to pursue gun control legislation instead of addressing criminal recidivism and the judicial system’s inability to incarcerate criminals. I live in the Philly area and there was an article about this waste of life Vondell Roundtree aka, “pooh” who is up on murder charges. In 2002 he plead guilty to carrying a firearm without a license. He got 3 years….PROBATION!
I’d love to think they will respond with a logical answer, but I won’t hold my breath. Reasoned discourse I guess.
August 7th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Did you guys see the “A Shrinking Minority The Continuing Decline of Gun Ownership in America”
😉 “study” ?
It’s a classic! LOL!
It’s chock full of gems like this:
“During the period 1980 to 2006, the percentage of Americans who reported personally owning a gun dropped more than nine percentage points”
Gee, ya think? I guess the “gun problem” is just “solving” itself, huh?
Or… Just Maybe…. gun owners are a bit more reluctant to answer questions like:
“Do you happen to have in your home (if house: or garage) any guns or revolvers?”
I know how I would answer if somebody from the University of Chicago asked me about my guns, I’d tell them to go pound sand! It’s none of the freakin business! Further I expect a LOT of other gun owners would do likewise.
Study, HA! Propaganda, that’s what it is…. all it is.
August 7th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
*Heh* I do better “research” than that!
August 7th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Where’s the astroturf-funding organization that will pay me $130k+ per annum?
(Sorry, didn’t intend to make this two posts.)
August 7th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
They looked at only six months from July to December, and made this brilliant conclusion complete with a graph: “Drive-by shootings peaked in the month of July and continued to decline as the months turned colder.”
August 8th, 2007 at 1:02 am
I don’t see how they can be declining? I had to wait in a long line at the McDonalds drive-by.
August 9th, 2007 at 8:33 am
[…] their premise that Google searches = study, here’s a handy VPC study generator. […]
August 31st, 2007 at 10:41 am
[…] Tom responds. I concur that the VPC is not a reputable source for, err, anything. But I like pointing out their hysteria and lies. They are their own worst […]
September 25th, 2007 at 8:20 am
[…] sure the VPC will do a Google study with […]
November 9th, 2007 at 9:50 am
[…] It is so broke, it’s recycling supposed studies it did four years ago. Well, at least they’re not passing off Google searches as research. […]