Guns, self-defense and red-handed lies [View all]

Josh Sugarmann, Executive Director , Violence Policy Center, blogged on HuffPo about the report his group released detailing the rare use of firearms in self-defense. For proof he prominently displays a graphic, making the rounds of gun control proponents, showing that there are many more criminal homicides than self-defense homicides.
implication being the only valid DGU is one where the attacker is killed.
Much like a Republican sponsored "Abortion Rights" bill, Mr. Sugarmann hopes you do not read beyond the title.

The same report Firearm Justifiable Homicides and Non-Fatal Self-Defense Gun Use http://www.vpc.org/studies/justifiable16.pdf actually says firearms were used defensively 163,600 times over a three year period, per the NCVS. That gives an average of 54,433 DGUs per year. By presenting the graphic which shows 211 justifiable homicides, he has waved away 99.6% of DGUs. (Or to put it another way, armed civilians ward off an attacker without fatality 99.6% of the time)

But, you say, 54,000 or so is a fraction of the total of violent crimes in the U.S. You are correct, although to those 54,000 it is a very important fraction, but given a criminal homicide total of 7,838 guns were used to save people nearly seven times more often than to kill. Taking a cold look at the numbers, it seems intuitive that absent guns the number of those 7,838 fatalities who would survive would be more than offset by an increased number of violent crime victims. Who is willing to stand up and state how many rapes and assaults they find tolerable per life saved?

Now perhaps some deem 54,000+ victims a worthwhile price for a lower number of gun related deaths. Unfortunately that 54,000 number is also questionable. The CDC sponsored report PRIORITIES FOR RESEARCH TO REDUCE THE THREAT OF FIREARM-RELATED VIOLENCE http://www.nap.edu/read/18319/chapter/1, ordered by President Obama after Sandy Hook, looked at studies measuring DGUs. They noted the Kleck study that puts the number of DGUs at over 2 million per year and questioned that high total due to small sample size. They also considered the number of DGUs derived from the NCVS and stated that low number to be "dubious" due to the wording of the questions on the NCVS. The CDC believes the NCVS is seriously undercounting DGUs and one of the recommendations, as yet not acted upon, is further study be done on the subject.

While I have no doubt Mr. Sugarmann and the VPC mean well they completely sacrifice all of their integrity to try and twist the data. Much like a stage magician making an item disappear, they flash the report in one hand, then use a graphic like a handkerchief in the other. They hope you are so focused on the waving handkerchief you don't stop to ask what is in the other hand. Much like gullible children, those who want to believe accept it as true magic, never noticing it is all illusion.