Medicine
To those of you who come here to read my views on science and religion and politics, this post will probably come as something of a shock. But in the process of dealing with a very painful situation, my thoughts have turned inward. That turning inward is fueled also by the fact that next week will be the 7th anniversary of my mother's death. And it is that story that I feel compelled to tell.
My mother had quite a life. She gave birth to her first child, my brother Jack, at the age of 16. Jack's birthday would forever be a bittersweet day for her, however, because her father died in a car…
Peter H. Proctor writes:
> 2) The main factor was apparently the substitution of handguns for
> long guns as home defense weapons. For penetrating trunchal
> wounds, the mortality rate for handguns is 15-20 %, roughly the
> same as for equivalent knife wounds. For (e.g) shotguns, the
> mortality rate is 70% or so. If memory serves, for high power
> rifles, about 30-40 %, BTW, the mortality rate from those wicked
> "assault weapons" is close to that for handguns, since they shoot
> a relatively low-powered round
Please provide a source for these claims.
> This is…