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A prestigious government agency is spreading fake news about fake gun injuries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is falsely reporting that gun injuries are increasing.
While the number of gun injuries in America is falling, the CDC is claiming it is increasing. In particular, FiveThirtyEight and The Trace are alleging that the CDC is inflating data with fake gun injuries.
For instance, the CDC claim that gun injuries are increasing at a rate of 37% a year is fake news, FiveThirtyEight charges. In fact, all the other data reviewed by FiveThirtyEight and The Source contradicts the CDC’s claims.
For example, the CDC itself admits the data is “unstable and potentially unreliable.” However, researchers are citing the CDC’s fake gun injuries in papers and also in prestigious scientific journals.
“Even its estimates of BB gun injuries are more reliable than its calculations for the number of Americans wounded by actual guns,” FiveThirtyEight’s writers complain about the CDC. Consequently, the CDC is spreading phony claims about fake gun injuries.
To demonstrate, statistics from health and criminal justice databases reveal that the number of gun injuries in America is falling. Conversely, the CDC is claiming more people are being hurt in accidents involving firearms.
How The CDC Created 31,000 Fake Gun Injuries
Particularly, the CDC claims that the number of gun injuries in the U.S. increased by 31,000 in 2016. The CDC apparently based its calculations on data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
However, the Commission tells FiveThirtyEight that there was no “statistically significant difference” between its data for 2015 and 2016. Therefore, the CDC must’ve manufactured 31,000 fake gun injuries by lying about data.
“No one should trust the CDC’s nonfatal firearm injury point estimates,” David Hemenway, the director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, says. Tellingly, Hemenway made that comment after reviewing FiveThirtyEight’s report.
A Hidden Epidemic Of Fake Gun Injuries
In addition, the 31,000 fake gun injuries are probably the basis for a paper that alleges there is a “hidden epidemic of gun injuries.”
In fact, a paper entitled The Hidden Epidemic of Firearm Injury: Increasing Firearm Injury Rates During 2001–2013 was published in a distinguished scientific journal. Notably, the American Journal of Epidemiology is posting the paper at its website without questioning the fake statistics.
Additionally, researchers are citing the CDC’s 31,000 fake gun injuries as valid data in at least 49 other academic articles, FiveThirtyEight notes. This information illustrates that social scientists are using phony data in their research. Significantly, the research is being used to justify demands for gun control.
How The CDC’s Fake Gun Injuries Fooled Researchers
Researchers are using the phony data because it is easy to access through the CDC’s Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System.
Measurements of the data’s reliability are available through the same website but it’s difficult to access this analysis. Further, the CDC makes data about fake gun injuries that is easy for researchers to find but conveniently hides data debunking those same statistics. As a result, we can easily see that the CDC is misleading researchers with fake gun injuries.
As an illustration, when Kristen Moore analyzed risks from gun injuries, she discovered that the number of firearms injuries is still falling. Moreover, Moore, a professor of mathematics, notes that data from other sources show fewer gun injuries than the CDC is reporting.
Both FiveThirtyEight and The Trace report that FBI and Bureau of Justice Statistics data show fewer gun injuries. Notably, FiveThirtyEight also reveals that data from the U.S. Department of Justice contradicts the CDC’s claims.
Conclusion
Obviously, you must read any news article or commentary that contains a lot of data with skepticism. The CDC’s fake gun injuries demonstrate how easily the media and researchers are being fooled by deceptive data.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is America’s leading public health institute. Moreover, the CDC is a federal agency and part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Furthermore, the CDC’s main goal is protecting the public from disease and disability. We should then ask why the CDC is taking sides in the gun control debate.
Surprisingly, FiveThirtyEight fails to inquire as to why the CDC is promoting fake gun injuries. Cynics will respond that politics is motivating the Centers’ actions. Specifically, the CDC is explicitly promoting gun control.
Most importantly, we must ask why the CDC is promoting fake gun injuries. Do its scientists now consider guns a disease?
