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TRUE GUN STATISTICS
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The World Wide Web
GUN DEFENSE CLOCK
Every 13 seconds an American gun owner uses a firearm in defense against
a criminal.
Criminal Attacks Stopped By Guns This Year: WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Among 15.7% of gun defenders interviewed nationwide during The National
Self Defense Survey conducted by Florida State University criminologists
in 1994, 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.
Source: "Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalance and Nature of
Self-Defense with a Gun," by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz, in The Journal
of Criminal Law & Criminology, Northwestern University School of Law,
Volume 86, Number 1, Fall, 1995
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Marvin Wolfgang, Director of the Sellin Center for Studies in
Criminology and Criminal Law at the University of Pennsylvania,
considered by many to be the foremost criminologist in the country,
wrote in that same issue, "I am as strong a gun-control advocate as can
be found among the criminologists in this country. If I were Mustapha
Mond of Brave New World, I would eliminate all guns from the civilian
population and maybe even from the police ... What troubles me is the
article by Gary Kleck and Marc
Gertz. The reason I am troubled is that they have provided an almost
clear cut case of methodologically sound research in support of
something I have theoretically opposed for years, namely, the use of a
gun in defense against a criminal perpetrator. ...I have to admit my
admiration for the care and caution expressed in this article and this
research. Can it be true that about two million instances occur each
year in which a gun was used as a defensive measure against crime? It is
hard to believe. Yet, it is hard to challenge the data collected. We do
not have contrary evidence. The National Crime Victim Survey does not
directly contravene this latest survey, nor do the Mauser and Hart
Studies. ... the methodological soundness of the current Kleck and Gertz
study is clear. I cannot further debate it. ... The Kleck and Gertz
study impresses me for the caution the authors exercise and the
elaborate nuances they examine methodologically. I do not like their
conclusions that having a gun can be useful, but I cannot fault their
methodology. They have tried earnestly to meet all objections in advance
and have done exceedingly well."
So this data has been peer-reviewed by a top criminologist in this
country who was prejudiced in advance against its results, and even he
found the scientific evidence overwhelmingly convincing.
By Comparison:
A fatal accident involving a firearm occurs in the United States only
about once every 6 hours. For victims age 14 or under, it's fewer than
one a day -- but still enough for the news media to have a case to tell
you about in every day's edition.
Source: National Safety Council
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A criminal homicide involving a firearm occurs in the United States
about once every half hour -- but two-thirds of the fatalities are not
completely innocent victims but themselves have criminal records.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reports and Murder Analysis by the Chicago
Police Department
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Kids and guns? Here's what a 1995 federal study investigating juvenile
crime found after looking at 20,000 randomly selected households:
Relationship between type of gun owned and percent committing street,
drug and gun crimes.
Illegal gun:
Street crimes = 74%
Drug use = 41%
Gun crimes = 21%
No gun:
Street crimes = 24%
Drug use = 15%
Gun crimes = 1%
Legal Gun:
Street crimes = 14%
Drug use = 13%
Gun crimes = 0%
"The socialization into gun ownership is also vastly different for legal
and illegal gunowners. Those who own legal guns have fathers who own
guns for sport and hunting. On the other hand, those who own illegal
guns have friends who own illegal guns and are far more likely to be
gang members. For legal gunowners, socialization appears to take place
in the family; for illegal gunowners, it appears to take place 'on the
street.'"
"Boys who own legal firearms have much lower rates of delinquency and
drug use and are even slightly less delinquent than nonowners of guns."
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice,
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, NCJ-143454,
"<http://www.tyc.state.tx.us/prevention/urbdelin.htm> Urban Delinquency
and Substance Abuse," August 19,1997.
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Making it legally possible for civilians to carry concealed weapons does
not make society more violent or result in shootouts at traffic
accidents. The rate of criminal misuse of firearms by the hundreds of
thousands of persons licensed to carry concealed firearms in Florida is
so low as to be statistically zero. In fact, homicide, assault, rape,
and robbery are dramatically lower in areas of the United States where
the public is allowed easy access to carrying concealed firearms in
public.
Sources: Florida Department of State, Concealed Weapons/ Firearms
License Statistical Report and
<http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/guns.html>"Crime, Deterrence, and
Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns," by John R. Lott, Olin
Fellow in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago Law School and
David B. Mustard, graduate student, Department of Economics, Journal of
Legal Studies, January 1997.
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Making guns less available does not reduce suicide but merely causes the
person seeking death to use another means. While gun-related suicides
were reduced by Canada's handgun ban of 1976, the overall suicide rate
did not go down at all: the gun-related suicides were replaced 100% by
an increase in other types of suicide -- mostly jumping off bridges.
Source: Rich, Young, Fowler, Wagner, and Black, The American Journal of
Psychiatry March, 1990
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Surprised by These Facts?
Maybe it's because the TV networks are deliberately not telling you
about them!
Read "<http://www.pulpless.com/gunclock/mw0797st.html>Gun Rights Forces
Outgunned on TV: Networks Use First Amendment Rights to Promote
Opponents of Second Amendment Rights" from the July 1997
<http://www.mrc.org/> MediaWatch Study.
Copyright © 1996 by <http://www.pulpless.com/jneil/> J. Neil
<http://www.pulpless.com/jneil/>Schulman. All rights reserved.
The Webmaster of this page is J. Neil Schulman. Email: mailto:
jneil@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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