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Guns and Crime Prevention

Myth: Private ownership of guns is not effective in preventing crime

By Guy Smith. GunFacts.info

Fact:  Every year, people in the United States use guns to defend themselves against criminals an estimated 2,500,000 times – more than 6,500 people a day, or once every 13 seconds. [1] Of these instances, 15.7% of the people using firearms defensively stated that they “almost certainly” saved their lives by doing so.

Fact:   Even the governments estimate, which has a major methodology problem, [2] estimates people defend themselves 235,700 times each year with guns. [3]

Fact:  The number of times per year an American uses a firearm to deter a home invasion alone is 498,000. [4]

Fact:  In 83.5% (2,087,500) of these successful gun defenses, the attacker either threatened or used force first, proving that guns are very well suited for self-defense.

Fact:  The rate of defensive gun use (DGU) is six times that of criminal gun use. [5]

Fact:   Of the 2,500,000 times citizens use guns to defend themselves, 92% merely brandish their gun or fire a warning shot to scare off their attackers.

Fact:   Less than 8% of the time does a citizen wound his or her attacker, and in less than one in a thousand instances is the attacker killed. [6]

Fact:  In one local review of firearm homicide, more than 12% were civilian legal defensive homicides. [7]

Fact:  For every accidental death (802), suicide (16,869) or homicide (11,348) [8] with a firearm (29,019), 13 lives (390,000) [9] are preserved through defensive use.

Fact:   When using guns in self-defense, 91.1% of the time, not a single shot is fired. [10]

Fact:  After the implementation of Canada’s 1977 gun controls prohibiting handgun possession for protection, the “breaking and entering” crime rate rose 25%, surpassing the American rate. [11]

Myth: Only police should have guns

Fact:  “Most criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police.” [12]

Fact:  For kids in schools, police put an end to such attacks only 27% of the time. [13]

Fact:  11% of police shootings kill an innocent person – about 2% of shootings by citizens kill an innocent person. [14]

Fact:  Police have trouble keeping their own guns. Hundreds of firearms are missing from the FBI and 449 of them have been involved in crimes. [15]

Fact:  People who saw the helplessness of the L.A. Police Department during the 1992 King Riots or the looting and violence in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina know that citizens need guns to defend themselves.

Fact:  “In actual shootings, citizens do far better than law enforcement on hit potential. They hit their targets and they don’t hit other people. I wish I could say the same for cops. We train more, they do better.” [16]

Myth: You are more likely to be injured or killed using a gun for self-defense

Fact:  You are far more likely to survive violent assault if you defend yourself with a gun. [17]

Myth: Guns are not effective in preventing crime against women

Fact:   Of the 2,500,000 annual self-defense cases using guns, more than 7.7% (192,500) are by women defending themselves against sexual abuse.

Fact:  When a woman was armed with a gun or knife, only 3% of rape attacks were completed, compared to 32% when the woman was unarmed. [18]

Fact:The probability of serious injury from an attack is 2.5 times greater for women offering no resistance than for women resisting with guns. Men also benefit from using guns, but the benefits are smaller: Men are 1.4 times more likely to receive a serious injury. [19]

Fact:  28.5% of women have one or more guns in the house. [20]

Fact:  41.7% of women either own or have convenient access to guns. [21]

Fact:  In 1966, the city of Orlando responded to a wave of sexual assaults by offering firearms training classes to women. Rapes dropped by nearly 90% the following year.

Fact:  Firearm availability appears to be particularly useful in avoiding rape. The United Kingdom virtually banned handgun ownership. During the same period handgun ownership in the United States steadily rose. Yet the rate of rape decreased in the United States and skyrocketed in the other countries, as shown in the table.

Fact:  More Americans believe having a gun in the home makes them safer. This belief grows every year the survey is taken. [22]

Fact:  Arthur Kellerman, a researcher whose work is often cited by gun control groups, said “If you’ve got to resist, your chances of being hurt are less the more lethal your weapon. If that were my wife, would I want her to have a .38 Special in her hand? Yeah.” [23]

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