"Boots More Harmful Than Weapons In Street Violence, Study Shows"

[cuchulainn]

From Medical News Today (United Kingdom)
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=58921

Boots More Harmful Than Weapons In Street Violence, Study Shows

Main Category: Public Health News
Article Date: 17 Dec 2006 - 23:00 PST

The prevention of attacks involving kicking or blunt objects is just as important as preventing knife violence, new research from Cardiff University shows.

A team from the University's Violence Research Group found that injuries inflicted with feet were more likely to result in severe injury than any other method of assault.

The team reviewed instances of violence resulting in treatment at the Emergency Department, University Hospital Wales, Cardiff between 1999 and 2005.

They found that while assault with a weapon was generally more likely to cause severe injuries than non-weapon assault, kicking was the single most likely method to cause severe injury. The next most likely methods were, in order, blunt objects, other body parts such as the head, and sharp objects. Fists, despite being the most common method of assault, were the least likely to cause serious injury.

The research, published in the international academic journal Injury Prevention, is the first ever to compare injuries by method of attack. Professor Jonathan Shepherd, who led the research, said the surprisingly severe injuries from kicking and blunt objects should make them just as high priorities as knives in violence reduction strategies.

Professor Shepherd said: "This might be achieved through public awareness campaigns and tackling alcohol misuse to reduce the chances of people falling over, since victims of violence are usually kicked after they have fallen.

"We also need to take action to reduce the availability of blunt objects coming to hand in licensed premises and city centre streets."

While there was little difference between injuries inflicted by one assailant or two assailants, the severity of injury rose significantly when there were three or more attackers. Professor Shepherd said that group violence should therefore be a further priority for action.

The study found that men aged 47 were the most likely to be severely injured. Women accounted for 25% of all victims, a higher percentage than that in previous UK studies, possibly reflecting changing behaviour in recent years.

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[rkh]

I feel a boot and blunt-object amnesty coming on...

 

[jeep-2]

Oh,Oh, we may have to get a permit to wear boots and have them registered and printed.

 

[Leatherneck]

WHAT AN UTTERLY STUPID STATEMENT THIS IS:

"We also need to take action to reduce the availability of blunt objects coming to hand in licensed premises and city centre streets."

tc

 

[Fly320s]

Great Britain Bans Bluntness

How's that for a headline?

From now on, only rounded or obtuse objects are allowed to be possessed by the commons. Said objects must be soft on all outside surfaces and may not be an offensive color, shape, smell, or thought.

 

[El Tejon]

Allow me to be blunt, this is just silly.

 

[molonlabe]

Is there something in the water over there or what???

 

[ceetee]

I see huge contracts in the future of Nerf Industries...


(That reminds me... gotta call my broker...)

 

[Glockfan.45]

Great Britain Bans Bluntness

I laughed for a second till it hit me how sad it is that such a statement can be made. Oh well I propose we ban feet then, if you dont support that ban you must not care about the children. When they cant use bullets, they use knives, when they cant use knives they use clubs, when they cant use clubs, they use boots. All the while good people are prevented the most effective means of defending themselves. What ever happened to the Glory of the British Empire, the proud fighting spirit they displayed during even the darkest days of WWII? When did they become a foam padded nanny state, and why?

 

[gyp_c2]

well...

 

[ksnecktieman]

Any one got any stock in a moccasin manufacturing company in GB, that they want to sell?

 

[Iain]

There was an article on the internet the other day about how lots of adults lack the reading comprehension skills to perform karaoke.

Have a field day with the 'ban blunt objects' element of what the professor had to say (but try to bear in mind that this is his opinion and not a policy), but he said nothing about banning boots.

 

[tellner]

New slogan:

"Blunts are for smoking!"

 

[rbernie]

Next up - bootsole micro-serialization. You'll be nicked by the serialized number your bootsole left on that poor schlub's forehead.

 

[Keith Wheeler]

Is there something in the water over there or what???

Yes, apparently quite a bit of MTBE. Or maybe that's just California...

 

[Rachen]

So they decided to ban blunts. But I can still smoke joints, right?

LOL Just kidding!
I don't smoke anything.

But that article gave me chills. First guns, then knives, now, blunt objects. So what is their next law? Boots can only be purchased by people over the age of 21 years, something like that? When I saw that hi-lighted statement, I had to frantically scroll back up to the title to see where it came from, and breathed a sigh of relief as this is not in the US.

Last month it was the teeny weeny .22 that scared the living daylights out of people, not they are considering boots to be a menace to society. Wow.

 

[glummer]

And the usual left-academic blind spot: it somehow never seems to occur to them that INTENT means anything. Perhaps kicking someone in the head, while they're down, indicates a DESIRE to cause more serious injury?

 

[shermacman]

The study found that men aged 47 were the most likely to be severely injured.

You people are barking up the wrong tree. If we simply forced men aged 47 to stay inside for just one year, the crime problem would go away. After all, if it saves just one life it would be worth it.

 

[geekWithA.45]

"We also need to take action to reduce the availability of blunt objects coming to hand in licensed premises and city centre streets."

Yeah, OK, this statement seems silly to us, until you realize that one of the motivations for the improvement in road technology was to deprive mobs of their favorite weapon, the cobblestone.

 

[Sistema1927]

You will not be allowed out in public unless you are wearing your fuzzy slippers, preferably with bunny ears.

 

[Deavis]

The JFPO could be in trouble if they ban boots. What will they do to the BATFE then?

 

[ksnecktieman]

Do those silly brits allow their 'CIVILIANS" to wear "JackBoots"? And make their police do the "softshoe"?

 

[doubleg]

BAN SHOES!! THEIR DANGEROUS AND VOILENT.

 

[MechAg94]

I guess steel toed boots will be banned. People who need them for work must now register them or wear detachable guards at work.

 

[Rachen]

I wonder what is going wrong over there, I am starting

to really suspect that all of our industrial pollutants are being carried across the Atlantic Ocean by the trade winds and they have been inhaling it since the 50s. Their draconian and silly weapons laws started around 1960, and 1960 is also the time when synthetic plastics and fibers began to be manufactured in this country. Which means thousands of mind altering organic compounds, benzene, toluene, trimethylpropionate, just to name a few.

Or maybe our relentless consumption of smokeless powder in our weekend shooting sessions contribute nitrous compounds to the atmospheric gasses that are blown over there, chemical reactions in the atmosphere making funny drugs. Just imagine, we shoot so much that we are depriving our oversea's neighbor's will to shoot.