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from the have-you-ever-seen-a-single-mump? dept.
Kami Altenberg Schaal has been a professional nurse for 22 years. She is pro-vaccine. She gets the flu shot every year as a requirement for her employment, and she vaccinates her family.
[...] Her entire family has been vaccinated with the MMR vaccine, and yet 4 out of 5 members of her family came down with the mumps. Her daughter is a freshman in college, and got the mumps from school.
[...] She isolated her daughter for 5 days ("I know how to isolate a patient, I'm a nurse"), and reported her case to the department of health.
All the members of her family also got booster shots of the MMR vaccine.
17 days after her daughter's exposure, her husband and son woke up with mumps.
After notifying the health department, Kami notified her son's school district as well.
What happened next was apparently something she had not anticipated. Even though her family was fully vaccinated and she followed all the proper medical protocols for dealing with the mumps, many people in her community began to blame her, including some of her medical colleagues, for not vaccinating their children (even though she had!)
[...] Finally, Kami herself woke up with the mumps. She had been tested and was supposedly immune. She had taken the booster. But she ended up getting the mumps anyway.
[...] The department of health nurse was required to send out another letter to the school district, so Kami asked the nurse if she could "put the truth" in the letter to the school district that her son was vaccinated, because she feared being blamed in error, once again, for not vaccinating her children.
The nurse allegedly replied "no."
They will not put that in a letter, because it could give the anti-vaxx movement some fodder.
So they would not protect my family by saying we did the right things, so I had to protect my family. I'm the one who has to defend my family.
(Score: 5, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday April 30 2019, @04:58PM (9 children)
Your understanding is correct.
In 2010...
68% of Firearms used in Murders were handguns.
4% were Rifles.
21% were unknown/not reported.
The same source lists similar numbers up to 2014.
Source: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/expanded-homicide-data/expanded_homicide_data_table_8_murder_victims_by_weapon_2010-2014.xls [fbi.gov]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday April 30 2019, @07:06PM (8 children)
4% of 12,000 (~the annual count of US homicides by guns) is 480, which is, coincidentally, about the peak number of annual US deaths attributable to the measles when there was no vaccine available at all.
I'm not saying "ban rifles," I am saying: if you did ban rifles, it would have a bigger impact on the untimely death rate than the whole vaccine controversy ever will.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @12:06AM (1 child)
And I'm sayign you are retarded because you don't know what it's like to live in a place where there are no firearms and the state devolves into despotic monstracity. The deaths then cannot be calculated.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:11AM
Sure, they can, particularly if the state is OCD about documenting their murder.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:20PM (5 children)
You are well within your rights both to hold that opinion and to say that. I strongly support your choice to engage in a reasonable discourse on it. Thank you for that. It is far too rare in this topic.
The exact numbers are 367 rifle murders out of 8,874 firearm murders out of 13,164 total murders. That is less than Handguns (6,115), Knives (1,732), Blunt Objects (549), and Hands/Fists/Feet/etc. (769)
Thinking critically, why is this issue a political hotbutton when the impact of a complete ban addresses, at best, 4% of the problem?
When I think through it I have two conclusions.
1. We are being fed carefully crafted propaganda to politically polarize us so we can be lumped into a voting block. (Likely)
2. This is another small incremental step in a multi-generational process to remove all guns from the hand of private citizens. (Less likely)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 01 2019, @02:15PM (4 children)
I concur, absolutely. "Leadership" for the past several decades, ever since polling became a true science with repeatable results, is far too often elected by less than 1% margins... we are being played like an orchestra, and neither side is giving any of us more than they have to to win their elections.
Were there continued concern about the return of the Redcoats, being boarded in civilian homes, I would be all in favor of issuance of a musket to every home owner, along with periodic training on how to use it.
As it stands, any idiot with $50 can go get a deadly weapon almost as easily as a new TV. Idiots with a spare $1000 can make a real fun hobby of it, and still not know the first thing about gun safety. Guns deserve at least as much licensing requirement as driving cars, and impeding the flow of weapons to those who have demonstrated themselves "at risk" of improper use, while not 100% effective, will make a noticeable positive difference.
As it stands, I benefit somewhat from "herd immunity" in the gun culture. My neighbors have firearms, but more importantly, my home just looks like a place that a gun nut would live, and as such I'm sure that may some day frighten some neer-do-well away from my property to a softer looking target. I don't think that background checks, or even something as radical as mandatory annual training (real, live fire by the licensee, not accuracy requirements, but safe handling including discharge) wouldn't diminish that herd immunity effect one bit, around here.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:34PM (3 children)
You have a good point. The ATF form 4473 (the one you have to fill out to buy a gun) is currently 6 pages[1]. I would fully support a policy change to modify that form to include a section on basic firearms safety like the four rules[2]. I also support pulling federal funding from States that fail to meet criminal conviction, mental health, and domestic violence NICs reporting requirements. As a gun owner, hunter, and 2nd amendment supporter I consider these to be real common sense gun law reforms. I fail utterly to understand why they aren't something we can get passed tomorrow.
Source:
1 - https://www.atf.gov/file/61446/download [atf.gov]
2 - https://www.hunter-ed.com/gun-safety/ [hunter-ed.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:44PM (2 children)
Minor correction: the one you have to sign to buy a gun, the gun seller can certainly assist you in filling out the form...
That would be giving ground, giving ground makes a legislator look weak, looking weak costs poll points, poll points that can be better used for other things like personal pork projects.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:27PM (1 child)
You would think that, right?
No, that's a will-cost-them-their-FFL violation if they get caught. It's right there on Page 3 of the 6 page form. https://www.atf.gov/file/61446/download [atf.gov]
In practice, dealers have been fined for pointing out small errors (e.g. missing dates) to the buyer and handing it back to them so they can fix it.
You would think any idiot should be able to fill out this form properly, right? Have a look at it. Could you do it? Go ahead, print it out and fill it in.
ATF compliance audits have a 50% failure rate because of stupid crap like this.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:44PM
It is most convenient to rule a society in which everyone breaks the law...
That is a surprise... if you're going to have an out like this:
I might have to have another person fill the form for me - I can read, I can write, but I can't necessarily read form fine print in dim light of a gun shop, and I can't necessarily write legibly in the spaces provided any more, and I'm barely 50. I'd copy-paste the bit about generally filling out the form in the shop, but my Adobe reader appears to be Ctrl-C disabled...
Still, judging by the academic refinement level of many individuals I have witnessed stowing / retrieving a handgun from their waistband... the form doesn't seem to be stopping many people from actually obtaining guns.
🌻🌻 [google.com]