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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These numbers are always incredible.
If 2.5 million people have actively defended themselves with a gun every year, then I (or at least one of my friends) should have met one of these people in the 15 years that I've been in the US. Someone I know must have a story, no?
But apparently I'm blind and have missed the
37.5 million incidents during my time in the US. Even at the supposedly low end of 0.5 million a year, that's 7.5 million incidents. Almost 1500 incidents
every day. 300 per state, per day. Uh huh.
The incidence of people using guns for self-defense is wildly over-reported. When these events do happen, they are prominent nightly news events. In our locale about a month ago, a grandma made a robber flee by coming downstairs with her rifle while he was rummaging in the living room. That's the only example that I can recall during my 7 year stay in this state. So unless there is a news conspiracy to not report all the other ones (I've lived in two very gun friendly midwestern states), they just don't happen nearly as often as gun advocates tout.
I don't really care if people have guns, but this whole "self-defense" angle is bollocks.