Impulse shootings by guns at home are probably the largest cause of gun deaths.
Wrong.
Few criminals who break in are killed. More innocents are killed by home owners than criminals.
Even if you don't count crimes that are detered by the knowledge that someone has a gun (and other's particuarly burgularies that are detered by the mere possibility that a gun is present), more crimes are provented by guns welded by private citizens then inoccents are killed or harmed by gun accidents in the home or impulsive crimes of passion by people with no prior criminal record. In about 98% of all defensive uses of firearms no one is killed.
1995 Fatal accidents -
Motor Vehicles - 43,900 - Falls 12,600 - Posionings 10,600 -
Drownings 4,500 - Fires 4,100 - Choking 2,800 - Firearms 1,400 (of which 181 where children under 15).
justfacts.com
" "Victims who used guns for protection were less likely either to be attacked or injured than victims who responded in any other way, including those who did not resist at all," and "When victims use guns to resist crimes, the crimes usually are disrupted and the victims are not injured."
Current estimates show that up to 2.45 million criminal acts are thwarted by firearms every year in the U.S., most without a shot being fired ("Should You Own a Gun," U.S. News and World Report, Aug. 15, 1994, p. 27.) Even conservative estimates place the number at well over a million. In 1990, there were 1,400 accidental firearms deaths. Compare this to 1,900 accidental firearms deaths in 1910, despite the huge increase in both population and gun ownership, and the "you might accidentally shoot yourself or someone else" argument falls to dust (National Safety Council, "Accident Facts, 1992 Edition.")
Don B. Kates Jr., at the St. Louis University School of Law, found that while police were successful in shooting or driving off criminals 68 percent of the time, private citizens did so 83 percent of the time. Moreover, 11 percent of the individuals involved in police shootings were later found to be innocents mistaken for criminals, while only 2 percent of those in civilian shootings were so misidentified. Private citizens in urban areas encounter and kill up to three times as many criminals as law enforcement personnel ("Gun Control and the Subway Class," Wall Street Journal, Jan. 10, 1985.) The reasons are simple: Private citizens who carry firearms are far more likely to know who the "good guys" and the "bad guys" are, since they have generally witnessed the situation from the beginning. Police, called to the scene well after trouble has started, don't have that advantage.
As with most things in life, there are no perfect choices. You can choose to own a gun (1,400 accidental deaths per year), or not to own one (2.45 million more crimes per year). You can let the police "protect" you (11 percent shooting of innocents, when and if the cops show up) or decide to protect yourself (2 percent shooting of innocents). You can cooperate with the demands of criminals (making you more likely to be attacked and injured) or use a firearm for defense (making you less likely to be attacked and injured). "
wildcat.arizona.edu
"
The truth is, the number of American kids aged 0 to 15 killed with guns is about 950 each year; not 8,000 as is often claimed. Guns are involved in less than half of one percent of all child deaths! The chances of an American child aged 0 to 15 being killed with a gun are only about one in 50,000! That’s a risk factor of 1/50 of one percent... That's hardly an "epidemic." One such death occurs every nine hours; not every ninety minutes as is usually claimed.
Also, the "gun death" statistics quoted by the anti self defense lobby include all deaths from guns. So they include gun deaths that are actually justified; as when a citizen or officer shoots a criminal who is trying to rob, rape or murder. Finally, the anti-gun "statistics" always fail to mention the many times guns are used to prevent crime and save lives.(See next page.) (Sources: National Center for Health Statistics, Advanced Data From Vital and Health Statistics, No. 231, 1992. New England Journal of Medicine Vol. 270: 2207-2212, 1993.)
home.earthlink.net
Re Gun lock laws -
tsra.com
gunsandcrime.org |
