FSU Study: The rate of Defensive Gun Uses stopping crimes can be projected nationwide to approximately 2.5 million per year -- one Defensive Gun Use every 13 seconds. Read and comment:
Among 15.7% of gun defenders interviewed nationwide during The National Self Defense Survey, the defender believed that someone "almost certainly" would have died had the gun not been used for protection -- a life saved by a privately held gun about once every 1.3 minutes. (In another 14.2% cases, the defender believed someone "probably" would have died if the gun hadn't been used in defense.)
In 83.5% of these successful gun defenses, the attacker either threatened or used force first -- disproving the myth that having a gun available for defense wouldn't make any difference. In 91.7% of these incidents the defensive use of a gun did not wound or kill the criminal attacker (and the gun defense wouldn't be called "newsworthy" by newspaper or TV news editors). In 64.2% of these gun-defense cases, the police learned of the defense, which means that the media could also find out and report on them if they chose to.
In 73.4% of these gun-defense incidents, the attacker was a stranger to the intended victim. (Defenses against a family member or intimate were rare -- well under 10%.) This disproves the myth that a gun kept for defense will most likely be used against a family member or someone you love.
In over half of these gun defense incidents, the defender was facing two or more attackers -- and three or more attackers in over a quarter of these cases. (No means of defense other than a firearm -- martial arts, pepper spray, or stun guns -- gives a potential victim a decent chance of getting away uninjured when facing multiple attackers.)
In 79.7% of these gun defenses, the defender used a concealable handgun. A quarter of the gun defenses occured in places away from the defender's home.
Top Opinion
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Frank Stephens 2013/01/02 16:27:17
+21I have just one question for my leftist-progressive friends: We have a massive system of drug control laws. Yet, the left is the first to argue that the war on drugs has been a failure. Regardless whether you see it a failure, the war on drugs surely hasn't prevented tens of millions of Americans, including teenagers, from obtaining drugs illegally. Why, then, does the left believe that a war on guns would be any more effective than the war on drugs?
just realized I typo'd. Oops...
More guns for everybody!
Your percentages would be effective in a debate about repealing the second amendment, but when we're only talking about assault weapons, extended clips and drums, gun show loopholes and strict background checks with a mental health evaluation your discussion makes no sense.
More than 32,000 Americans are killed through the use of a gun annually. Close to 7,000 Americans lost their lives in both Afghanistan and Iraq. That's a lot.
http://icasualties.org/