🚀 go-pugleaf

Melanie Arabsky (mel@zadall.com) wrote:
: <snip>
: >If I am facing an intruder, I don't want him to have
: >a sporting chance.  I want the upper hand.  If he's got a gun and I don't,
: >that's not very sporting either.  

: Ok - there's a can of worms.  Any real stats on how many guns are
: *actually* used in legit self-defense??  I would especially like to
: stack that number up next to how many accidental deaths attributed to
: guns (I would both include and exclude deaths caused intentionally for 
: other comparisons).  For my purposes I would like to consider handguns 
: only (so people protecting themselves or livestock against wild
: animals don't count here - unless they are doing it with a handgun).

In the US, there were about 1400 accidental gun deaths last year.
Some of these may be misclassified suicides since most insurance
policies don't pay for suicide.  A significant portion of these are
hunting accidents.  The number of accidental deaths in the US due to
firearms has been steadily decreasing for 75 years.

There are many estimates of gun defenses.  The NCS publishes the
number 80,000.  Their number is reported defenses.  Many think this is
an unreliable number due to the belief that the vast majority of
successful defenses are unreported.  If you were successful in
defending yourself, there is little to report.  Kleck in _Point_Blank_
estimates 600,000 successful defenses per year in the US.  In a later
study, he published a preliminary new estimate of 2.5 million
successful defenses.  This number is under question still.  In all
of these number, the weapon of choice is predominately a handgun.

: The reason I am curious is that I seriously suspect some people who 
: claim to have guns 'for self defense' would be more honest if they 
: just said 'I like them, I feel good owning one, I like to use it'.  
: I am not saying these latter reasons for owning a gun are invalid.  
: And this is just my guess - maybe I am seriously deluded in that I 
: have never had the need to defend myself with a gun (and I do get 
: out of the house even! :-).   

I'll bet you've never had a housefire, either, but I'll also wager
that you have insurance and a fire extinguisher.

: And yes, I am aware 'stats mean nothing if an incident happens to *you*'.
: Whenever I get embroiled in a debate of this type I am reluctantly 
: drawn to drone on about about populations, ego, survival instinct, 
: 'is life fair', 'is God fair', 'is there a God', theories on what 
: one would do if they had to kill in order to save their own life etc. 
: so suffice to say yes I know but thats not an issue to be resolved here.

Indeed.  

--
Keith