Did guns or vaccines save more lives in 2021?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

That's not how burden of proof works and is essentially an argument from ignorance.  "Nobody has proved it wrong, therefore it is right."

If you think it's enough to complain about the flaws in methodology to discard a study, read up on conspiracy theorists (perhaps The Mad Revisionists - the conspiracy theorists who claim the Moon doesn't exist) and consider the matters again. You cannot manufacture the truth by discarding the evidence. That's not how science works. Gary Kleck's study is, until you point to a better study, the best data we have.

I agree that it’s the best study we have, but only by the virtue of being the only study we have. That doesn’t mean Kleck’s conclusions are valid. 

Suppose I were to conduct a study - the only one, mind you - of facial expressions in South American rodents and reached the conclusion that these expressions meant that capybaras were thinking about crucifixion imagery in the works of Kierkegaard.

Since no one has refuted this study, let alone conducted one of their own, should we accept my conclusion as a working hypothesis?

Boru