The statistics of defensive gun use vs. offensive and accidents

[acerbic]

Based on a quick sampling of posts here, fresh daily news about e.g. children accidentally shot are "countered" by old articles of defensive gun use which each have no doubt been spammed hundreds of times earlier as response to other fresh daily news. The ratio of "beneficial" gun use to harmful one seems to be something like 0.5-1/100. :-)

[MrBenchley]

1. You will also notice

So far, my favorite is the one from three years ago where the gun owner almost shot his own son and then wished he had shot the intruder...

[Ladyhawk]

2. Does anyone have a link to real statistics?

Rush Limbaugh must have said that the statistic "You are 100 times more likely to hurt yourself or a family member than an intruder with a gun bought for protection" is a lie. Because they keep telling me, "That's not true. That's not true."

[Spoonman]

3. Based on acceptable

statistical analysis principles (accepted only when it proves the anti-gun side) the number of crimes prevented by a civilian gun owner is estimated at 2.5 million annually.

Peddle it else where
Steaming Pantload
and so on and so on and 60,000 so on

[MrBenchley]

5. Only in gun nut land

http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/1995/tost_3.html#3_e

Table 3.21.....

Estimated percent distribution of self-protective measures employed by victims of violent crime
Attacked offender with weapon....0.9%
Threatened offender with weapon....0.8%

"Forty-five respondents reported a defensive gun use
in 1994 against a person (exhibit 7). Given the
sampling weights, these respondents constitute 1.6
percent of the sample and represent 3.1 million
adults. Almost half of these respondents reported
multiple DGUs during 1994, which provides the basis
for estimating the 1994 DGU incidence at 23
million. This surprising figure is caused in part
by a few respondents reporting large numbers of
defensive gun uses during the year; for example,
one woman reported 52!
Respondents might falsely provide a positive
response to the DGU question for any of a number of
reasons:
o They may want to impress the interviewer by their
heroism and hence exaggerate a trivial event.
o They may be genuinely confused due to substance
abuse, mental illness, or simply less-than-accurate
memories.
o They may actually have used a gun defensively
within the last couple of years but falsely report
it as occurring in the previous year--a phenomenon
known as "telescoping." "

http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles/165476.txt

[acerbic]

6. ...and the reason why you don't post fresh stories as proof

...is of course a giant left wing anti-gun media conspiracy that suppresses those stories. :tinfoilhat: :-)

[MrBenchley]

8. LOL! (nt)

[RobertSeattle]

9. Just a comment

My curiousity with the "2.5 Million" figure is this: Why aren't there 2.5 Million calls to 911 to back this stat up? Wouldn't/Shouldn't people call 911 after defending their household?

[MrBenchley]

10. In fact, if the 2.5 million figure were remotely true

there would be four times as much crime as there actually is,, and three times more shootings and woundings than there actually are.

The 2.5 million defensive gun uses are in the same class as Elvis or UFO sightings...

[RobertSeattle]

11. Also got me thinking

Gee, wonder how many "crimes" a barking dog prevents each year. I would bet tens of millions.

[MrBenchley]

12. Using the standard these gun nuts use

not only do barking dogs prevent millions of crimes, but people bitten by stray dogs become criminals...

(The study that showed 2.5 million counted somebody shooting at people on the street outside as a "defensive gun use." )

[acerbic]

13. I wonder if the study counted the guy who was going to fire

...a "warning shot" in the air after hearing gunfire somewhere but ended up killing his neighbor as defensive gun use... :crazy:

[MrBenchley]

14. Probably

Probably also counted the luckless babboo who shot himself after his truck got sideswiped...

[MrBenchley]

15. I'm sure they also counted

Robin the crime-fighting mom...and hers was as real as some of the others...

[MrBenchley]

4. Dr. Arthur Kellerman

did a study in the New England Journal of Medicine...

http://www.tf.org/tf/violence/firearms/facts/gunhome.shtml

Needless to say, right winng loonies have beenn screaming nonnstop that it is a "lie." blah blah blah.

[MrBenchley]

7. New favorite

The "crime fighting mom" turns out to have lied about her gun wielding exploit to hide her thefts....