GUN STATS

[JoBa]

The following was published in the June 2012 issue of REASON Magazine:

-John


Measuring armed self-defense

GUN STATS

by Brian Doherty

Gun control advocates emphasize the easy-to-count number of crimes committed with firearms. But what about crimes that are prevented by guns?
As historian Clayton E.Cramer and activist David Burnett explain in a new Cato Institute study, attempts to estimate how often Americans use guns for self-defense have generated a wide range of estimates, from tens of thousands to 2 million per year. Cramer and Burnetts paper, "Tough Targets: When Criminals Face Armed Resistance From Citizens," does not settle the issue, but it attempts to balance our understanding of firearms in America by presenting information derived from 5,000-case sample of defensive gun uses reported in newspapers from 2003 through 2011.
Government opposition to expanding gun rights "is typically based on assumptions that the average citizen is incapable of successfully employing a gun in self-defense," they write. But the authors find that "such cases represent an exceedingly small minority of gun uses by otherwise law-abiding citizens and that a great number of tragedies-murders, rapes, assaults, robberies- have been thwarted by self-defense gun uses."
The newspaper method likely undercounts the incidents, since most defensive gun uses--especially ones that don't result in the gun being fired--never make the papers. The case studies and the conclusions the authors draw provide a wide picture of the varied human circumstances in which gun possession is a clear benefit.



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[z0phi3l]

For every moron like Zimmerman, we have thousands of other gun owners doing it right

[old grunt]

Great post.

[Zimmy]

For every moron like George Zimmerman, we have thousands of other Zimmermans doing it right

Fixed it for ya

Zimmy

[bg]

Criminals know that cops have rules to follow and can even be reluctant to use a firearm in cases where they are clearly justified in doing so. I think Ferret outlined in another thread some of the circus that goes on in the aftermath of an LE-involved shooting.

Criminals also know that Joe Citizen doesn't have these same rules or as much concern about the aftermath and, therefore, is more likely to unceremoniously drill a dirtbag during the onset of a violent confrontation.

[Recon133]

If some armed civilian stops a gun crime by using a ccw or oc, or some home owner kills an armed thug who has broken in and is threatening them, you aren't going to hear much about it from the main stream media. But when something like the Zimmerman incident happens, it's plastered all over the media. The liberals and the Obama administration do not want the 2nd Amendment to be successul in this Country. Just recently there were several people killed in Chicago by a gang. Gang gun violence in Chicago is increasing at a rate equal to LA and Detroit. But the Chicago City Government thinks that restricting gun owner ship of law abiding citizens is going to stop gun violance. With this kind of mentality, you will never hear the positive aspect of the right of the people to keep and bear arms, from the Media or any liberal Administration, Fed or State.