Quote:
Originally Posted by mikey_the_redneck
Well, it's hard to have a discussion about gun defense when one side denies/minimizes the basic purpose of the firearm in the first place....but if the numbers are flawed projections then fine.
Aside from those 3-4 sources of gun defense stats in America, the only other one I can find is from the CDC.
They say gun defense actions occur about 498,000 times/year... Even with this more conservative estimate, ...that is still a staggering number. The point I was making is that gun defense actions far, far outweigh any gun crimes commited by legal gun owners, and that citizen gun owners pose little threat to society (as per my previous post showing crime conviction rates for CHL holders in Texas).
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The obvious counter arguement being that if everyone didn't have guns then they wouldn't need guns, that the only reason to defend yourself with a gun is because everyone else has a gun.
The US doesn't have significantly lower crime figures than comprable other western countries therefore having guns for defence isn't lowering crime.
It is reasonable to posit that gun defense is at best slightly moderating the effect of guns in the US, not actually helping.