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Gun Control & RKBA

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SecularMotion

(7,981 posts)
Sun Nov 15, 2015, 08:19 AM Nov 2015

The truth about guns and self-defense [View all]

Are guns used often in self-defense?
Not very — although the evidence on this issue is hotly disputed. National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre is often quoted as saying, "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun." LaPierre and gun-rights advocates point to research that supports this argument, chiefly a 1994 study by Gary Kleck, a Florida State University criminologist. Based on a telephone survey of about 6,000 people, Kleck concluded that guns are used defensively to stop a range of crimes, from simple assault to burglary to rape, up to 2.5 million times a year. But other academics and statisticians have criticized Kleck's conclusions, saying he relied on firearms owners' self-reporting their defensive gun use — problematic because some respondents might have categorized aggressive, unlawful gun use as self-defense — and then extrapolated that unreliable data to cover the entire nation. Those critics point to other figures that suggest defensive gun use is actually quite rare.

What figures?
Gun skeptics note that in 2012 there were 8,855 criminal gun homicides in the FBI's database, but only 258 fatal shootings that were deemed "justifiable" — which the agency defines as "the killing of a felon, during the commission of a felony, by a private citizen." Another study by the nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive, based on FBI and Justice Department data, found that of nearly 52,000 recorded shootings in 2014, there were fewer than 1,600 verified cases where firearms were used for self-defense. Gun advocates counter that not all instances of defensive gun use are reported to the police, and that in most cases shots are never fired, because simply displaying a weapon can deter a criminal. Firearms can "ensure your or your family's personal safety," said Brian Doherty, author of Gun Control on Trial, "even if you don't actually plug some human varmint dead."

Will a gun make you safer?
Most Americans think so. According to recent Gallup polls, 63 percent of adults believe having a gun in the house will make them safer and 56 percent think the country would be safer if more people carried concealed weapons. But numerous studies suggest that owning a gun can actually increase a person's risk of bodily harm and death. Research published this year in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that the 80 million Americans who keep guns in the home were 90 percent more likely to die by homicide than Americans who don't. A paper in the American Journal of Public Health, meanwhile, determined that a person with a gun was 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than someone who was unarmed.

What about home intrusions?
Having a gun close at hand might make you feel better protected against violent burglars, but in fact the annual per capita risk of death during a home invasion is 0.0000002 percent — essentially zero. On the other hand, a 2014 study from the University of California, San Francisco, shows that people with a gun in the house are three times as likely to kill themselves as non-firearm owners. More than 20,000 Americans shoot themselves to death each year, accounting for two-thirds of gun fatalities. "It's not that gun owners are more suicidal," said Catherine Barber, who heads a suicide prevention project at the Harvard School of Public Health. "It's that they're more likely to die in the event that they become suicidal, because they are using a gun."

http://theweek.com/articles/585837/truth-about-guns-selfdefense
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The truth about guns and self-defense [View all] SecularMotion Nov 2015 OP
So here's why I question this TeddyR Nov 2015 #1
What percent of "80 million Americans who keep guns in the home" are criminals? SecularMotion Nov 2015 #3
If you had your way... krispos42 Nov 2015 #9
Hah! Eleanors38 Nov 2015 #12
Thanks anyways but I'll keep my rights to self defense... ileus Nov 2015 #2
Math issues sarisataka Nov 2015 #4
Something I was told MANY MANY years ago and always will be true. napi21 Nov 2015 #5
IMHO the most under discussed part of personal security is... discntnt_irny_srcsm Nov 2015 #8
remember folks: "the killing of a felon... discntnt_irny_srcsm Nov 2015 #6
The irony. Gun-banners demand corpses as the basis for analysis. Eleanors38 Nov 2015 #13
Doesn't include non-lethal DGUs. Kang Colby Nov 2015 #7
They never do, the numbers don't look good when it's included DonP Nov 2015 #10
We owe the OP a debt for keeping our media literacy skills sharp friendly_iconoclast Nov 2015 #15
Check the dates too DonP Nov 2015 #18
".........that turns out to be a pro second amendment story." pablo_marmol Nov 2015 #28
I think it has more to do with having more of his posts up in our group DonP Nov 2015 #30
Well here's an example of a DGU... Ghost in the Machine Nov 2015 #11
Update on shooting of nursing mother... Eleanors38 Nov 2015 #16
Thanks for the update, Eleanors38! I was in the process of looking Ghost in the Machine Nov 2015 #17
Our rights aren't determined by statistics. beevul Nov 2015 #14
It's not about the statistics, it's about shaming DonP Nov 2015 #19
Good point. Our rights aren't determined by shaming. beevul Nov 2015 #20
It might bother me ... if they were in the least bit effective DonP Nov 2015 #21
Speaking of Ms Watts... beevul Nov 2015 #22
I guess the ones killed by suicide bombers at the stadium are out of luck as far as she's concerned DonP Nov 2015 #23
All that, plus... beevul Nov 2015 #24
AFAIC they can continue to shame all they want -- the more the better. pablo_marmol Nov 2015 #29
rights aren't determined by statistics, yet.... jimmy the one Nov 2015 #32
Yes, every year... beevul Nov 2015 #33
yes you are contradictory, & misleading jimmy the one Nov 2015 #34
Well, whaddya know...self-reporting of defensive gun use is unreliable... Marengo Nov 2015 #25
Yeah, its funny how selective some folks are about things like that. beevul Nov 2015 #26
Let's all be sure to ask them about the discrepancy when the opportunity presents... friendly_iconoclast Nov 2015 #27
What makes that opinion piece worth reading? ManiacJoe Nov 2015 #31
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