Write to CVS Pharmacy

[bdickens]

CVS pharmacy is parroting anti-gun propaganda on their website under Health Resources: Children's Health. Among other things, they are repeating Kellerman's "43 times more likely" lie.

Write to them to voice your displeasure at:

CVS Corporation
Corporate Headquarters
One CVS Drive
Woonsocket, RI 02895

A list of their corporate officers can be found here: http://www.cvscaremark.com/our-company/leadership-team

My letter goes out today along with their ExtraCare card that I am mailing back to them.

 

[deaconkharma]

voicing mine by dealing with Walgreens

 

[david_the_greek]

I think I just threw up in my mouth... When is a kid ready to learn about guns? "never". What the f....udge

 

[bdickens]

Here's the letter:

Thomas M. Ryan
Chairman of the Board
CVS Corporation
Corporate Headquarters
One CVS Drive
Woonsocket, RI 02895

Dear Mr. Ryan:

I was rather distressed to find your company's website parroting anti-gun propaganda under the guise of “child safety.”

Among the misinformation is the statement that “2,852 children and teenagers died of gunshot wounds in 2004.” If you bother to look at the actual tabulated data, you notice that 2,494 of those deaths occur between the ages of 15-19. In fact, 70% of the “children” who are killed by firearms each year are in fact gang members who die in gang-related violence. A 17-year-old or older gang member who already has a history of violent crime is hardly a “child!”

Another falsehood your website promulgates is the infamous fiction from the American Academy of Pediatrics that “...a gun in the house is 43 times more likely to kill a friend or family member than an intruder.” That number came from a study by Arthur L. Kellerman in which he cherry-picked data in order to reach a preconceived conclusion. Kellerman's data included criminals shooting other criminals and failed to take into account the estimated 1.5-2.5 million times per year that firearms are used, most often without even firing a shot, to prevent crime. In fact, Kellerman's deeply flawed study has been so thoroughly debunked that he has been forced to retract it – yet anti-gun bigots continue to use his fiction to promote their anti-liberty, anti-personal responsibility and anti-Constitution agenda.

The propaganda given out on your website disguised as “child safety” is quite frankly disgusting. I don't go to the NRA for medical advice and I sure don't go to the American Academy of Pediatrics for firearms advice and neither should you. It would be far more helpful to use information from the NRA's Eddie Eagle program. If you contacted them, I am certain they would be more than glad to help disseminate real firearms safety information.

As long as CVS Pharmacy parrots anti-gun propaganda, I will take my business elsewhere. Please find enclosed my and my families' ExtraCare cards. We won't be needing them any more because we will be spending our money at Walgreens and encouraging everyone we know to do likewise.

 

[david_the_greek]

wow, pretty good. Would you mind if I used a similar set up to yours (minus the family part and more towards the misinformation part)? Companies need to know that they will not receive business from gun owners if they attack us so recklessly

 

[General Geoff]

-- Chris Woolston, M.S., is a health and medical writer with a master's degree in biology.

He's about as qualified to talk about guns as a mathematician is qualified to grade creative writing assignments.


I'll be writing to CVS shortly.

 

[bikerdoc]

letter sent

 

[Crimp]

As a CVS customer, this really bothered me. LETTER SENT!

 

[bdickens]

...Would you mind if I used a similar set up to yours...?

Go for it. Just be sure to put the ideas in your own words.Gun Facts is your friend.

 

[IncredibleGord]

Never touch a gun for any reason.

 

[CentralTexas]

click the link at the page bottom

and read bios of the editorial team, journalists mostly, some even have MSNBC backgrounds!

 

[CentralTexas]

I just spoke to CVS

and was transferred over to Ashley xxxx that deals with their website issues. SHe was unaware it was ther and couldn't find it, I started to email a link and she said wait I just got a email from my supervisor can I put you on hlod etc. A couple of minutes later she says the Super said they are getting emails etc., and said this probably won't be up long and apologized. We shall see...
Dec 2, 3:35 Texas time...

 

[Blazer]

Letter sent.

 

[BP44]

Great work fellas, and good link about the gun facts
Letter sent

 

[tyler500e]

Letter Sent. Hellooo Walgreens!

 

[brin747]

Letter sent!!!


Thomas M. Ryan
Chairman of the Board
CVS Corporation
Corporate Headquarters
One CVS Drive
Woonsocket, RI 02895

Dear Sir,

As a long time CVS customer, I was very disappointed to find anti-gun propaganda currently posted on your corporate website in the Health Resources section under the heading “Children’s Health, Kids and Guns”. The author of this article, Chris Woolston, is clearly biased against firearms ownership and let’s her personal bias cloud her facts.

Among the misconceptions stated in the article is the following:

“What's more, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, guns used in school-related homicides and student suicides most often come from the child's own home or from a friend or relative.”

The article posted on your website also states the following:

“Never allow your child access to your gun(s). No matter how much instruction you may give him or her, a youngster in the middle years is not mature and responsible enough to handle a potentially lethal weapon. Certainly the recent wave of school massacres give ample evidence of that.”

In fact, a 2004 U.S. Justice Department study “Urban Delinquency and Substance Abuse” showed that 0% of children that get guns from their parents commit gun-related crimes. Children who acquire firearms illegally are twice as likely to commit street crimes as are those given a firearm by their parents.

Additionally, according to the National Center for Heath Statistics, fatal gun accidents for children ages 0-14 declined by almost 83% from 1981 to 2002. This while the number of handguns per capita increased over 41% (according to BATF estimates).

Statistically, my children are at more risk of poisoning from accidental ingestion of many of the products sold at your stores than they are of being injured or killed by one of my firearms. (According to the Centers for Disease Control report “20 Leading Causes of Unintentional Injury Deaths” Ages 1-14, published in 2001.) Realistically, my children are far safer in the presence of firearms than a child that has been denied any form of training or instruction would be.


Just as I don’t expect the NRA to provide me with responsible and trustworthy medical advice, I would not expect CVS to take it upon yourselves to provide firearms safety advise to the public, especially when it is loaded with anti-gun rhetoric clearly intended to instill fear in the public.

As a businessman myself, I learned a long time ago to keep controversial political views out of my business dealings. It’s too bad CVS does not adhere to the same business philosophy. As a result, I will be taking my business to one of your competitors from now on, and will be advising my friends and relatives, many of whom are also responsible gun owners, to do likewise.

 

[Geno]

Is Walgreen at least neutral? Or do they appear on some anti list? CVS is a definite off my list.

Doc2005

 

[armoredman]

Can't say if Walgreens is nuetral, but they have no signs posted in any one I have been in, if that helps.

 

[GrumpyBunny]

M response

Thanks for the guide and the information.

I am going to use your letter as the basis for mine. Consider that a compliment as that is how good your letter is. Thanks for the post. My letter will go out in the morning.

I am sincely tired of some non-gunner touting themselves as some kind of firearms safety expert. I certainly don't consider myself an "expert"

NRA certified Range Safety officer,
NRA certified Instructor in:
Home Firearm Safety
Basic Pistol
Basic Rifle
Basic Shotgun
Personal Protection In the Home
Gunnery Sergeant, USMC (ret)
Yes - I have a graduate degree too. Had to do something with all my free time!

 

[brin747]

Gee Grumpy, maybe you should write an article on pharmaceutical safety...

 

[JohnKSa]

Done.

It is disapointing to see anti-gun propaganda on CVS.com. Besides the fact that some of the material is from badly flawed studies it is just as ridiculous for a pharmacy to dispense gun safety information as it would be for a gun shop to give advice about personal prescriptions.

The"43 times more likely" statistic is terribly misleading. The study ignored the fact that in the VAST majority of successful self-defense cases involving guns the criminal is not even shot, let alone killed.

Also, 86% of the gun-related deaths in homes were suicides, not accidents or crimes.

The study compared the LEAST likely successful outcome of a gun self-defense use against a number composed mostly of suicides and stated it as if it were comparing the chances of using a gun in self-defense to the chances of being murdered or killed accidentally with a personally owned firearm.

Happily the wide selection of local pharmacies makes it easy to avoid using CVS in the future.​

 

[Dean Williams]

Heck, go to Wal Mart. They will sell us our medicines and guns!

 

[SHusky57]

"When is a child old enough to use a gun responsibly?

Never, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. This is what the distinguished organization has to say about children and guns: Never allow your child access to your gun(s). No matter how much instruction you may give him or her, a youngster in the middle years is not mature and responsible enough to handle a potentially lethal weapon. Certainly the recent wave of school massacres give ample evidence of that.



If you still want your child to know how to hunt or shoot, wait until the teenage years to begin instruction. Your child may be intelligent and emotionally mature, and he may know the book on gun safety, but you simply can't trust him with a hunting rifle until he's at least 13 years old -- and not even then unless you are absolutely certain he is mature enough to be responsible. (Don't give your child a BB gun as a toy -- writer Alice Walker is among the many Americans who have lost an eye to a sibling's BB gun.) If you decide to let him use a gun, make it a rule that he must be accompanied by an adult."

Now I am just playing with words here... (I am a philosophy major, it's what we do).

When is a child old enough to responsibly use a gun?
Never.
Therefore, no one should be able to use guns because all people start as children and they [children] are never old enough to responsibly use a gun. Since children are never old enough to responsibly use a gun, adults aged eighteen and over are not old enough to responsibly use a gun and should be barred from using them in military and police duty - because they are incapable of being responsible with them. So no one should have guns, every gun in the world should be destroyed because no one can be responsible with them.

Aren't word games fun?

 

[retgarr]

I just checked Walgreens, they hae the same type of health resource but none of that anti gun nonsense there.

 

[Lonest@r]

And to think as a child I was aware of guns in the house, was taught the dangers and told not to play with them. Scary to think I actually went hunting before high school, and there were rifles/shotguns and ammo sitting visibly around the house, or worse, a friends house, and no one got hurt. Guess it's amazing I survived?

Think that is the first article I have ever read that stated such fear. While they're at it, might as well teach the surest way to protect your child from alcohol is to keep it out of his life, it only leads to promiscuity, broken homes and alcoholism.

No need to teach responsibility.