Chapman S, Hayen A. Declines in Australian suicide: a reanalysis of McPhedran and Baker (2008). School of Public Health, University of Sydney, April 2008 (in press: Health Policy).

Reviewers comments on above paper:

Reviewer 1: "The reply by Chapman is very accurate. The work of McPhedran and Baker has major statistical errors and recommends actions (in the conclusion) which cannot be drawn from the tested hypotheses in the paper. Also Chapman correctly points to the fallacy of calculating absolute falls in suicide rates rather the relative rate changes since both Firearm suicides and Non-firearm suicides add up to 100%."

Reviewer 2: "I fully agree with Chapman's criticism, and recommend to accept this letter, in order to correct the wrong impression McPhedran and Baker may have given to the reader."

This is a critique of:

McPhedran S, Baker J. Recent Australian suicide trends for males and females at the national level: has the rate of decline differed? Health Policy 2008; (in press)

Chapman S, Alpers P, Agho K, Jones M. Australia’s 1996 gun law reforms: faster falls in firearm deaths, firearm suicides, and a decade without mass shootings. Injury Prevention 2006;12:365–372. (4th most downloaded paper in 2007)

Readers interested in this topic should also read a paper by two Australian gun lobbyists which reached different conclusions (and, amazingly,failed to consider the impact of the gun laws on mass shootings -- which was why they were introduced: see Baker J, McPhedran S. Gun laws and sudden death. Did the Australian firearms legislation of 1996 make a difference? British Journal of Criminology 2006; Advance access Oct 18 doi:10.1093/bjc/921084) and also a blistering critique of that paper by economists Christine Neill & Andrew Leigh.

Chapman S, Cornwall J, Righetti J, Sung L. Preventing dog bite in children: a randomised controlled trial of an educational intervention BMJ 2000;320:1512-3.

Chapman S, Morrell S. Barking mad? Another lunatic theory bites the dust. BMJ 2000;321:1561-3.

Chapman S. For debate: the means/ends problem in health promotion. Med J Australia 1988; 149:256 260.