About 21,000 times each year, someone is killed by someone with a gun.  

But well over 2,000,000 times each year, someone uses a gun defensively to prevent a criminal from carrying out his intentions.

In 1993, a research study measured the prevalence of “defensive gun uses” (DGUs).  The result:  between 2.2 million and 2.5 million DGUs occur each year.  

That report appeared in the Fall 1995 issue of the “Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology”, in an article titled Armed Resistance to Crime:  the Prevalence and Nature of Self-defense with a Gun.  

A number of other surveys reported similar statistics, whether based on victim surveys or police records.  

“Victims who resist with a gun or other weapon are less likely than other victims to lose their property.”

“Victims who resist by using guns or other weapons are less likely to be injured compared to victims who do not resist or to those who resist without weapons.”

“Even […] where the robber has a gun, victims who resist with guns are still substantially less likely to be injured than those who resist in other ways, and even slightly less likely to be hurt than those who do not resist at all.”

With regard to rape:  “victims who resisted with some kind of weapon were less likely to have the rape attempt completed against them.”

“If self-protection with a gun is commonplace, it means that any form of gun control that disarms large numbers of prospective victims […] will carry significant social costs.”

Note that this research occurred thirty years ago, when the legality of carrying a concealed gun was far more restrictive in the U.S. than it is today.  At that time, there were an estimated 220 million guns, in 47.6 million households – about 49%, of U.S. homes.  Current estimates are about twice that: about 434 million guns – which works out to 1.7 guns per adult.

Prior to 2010, more rifles were sold than pistols.  Since then, pistols have outsold rifles.  That reflects the increased use of guns for self-defense (vs. hunting or sport shooting), as does the number of people with Concealed Carry Permits:  8.5% of American adults have CCPs.  With the restrictive CCP laws in California, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, and Rhoda Island, only 1% of adults in those states have a CCP.  In contrast, in 17 states more than 10% of the population have a CCP; some counties exceed 50%.  Women, minorities, and LGBTQ+ categories are seeing the greatest increase in CCP holders.  See the chart for actual percentages by state.

Interestingly, CCP holders are statistically the least-likely of all people to commit a crime.

Anti-gun advocates claimed there would be Old-West-style shout-outs and blood running in the streets if CCPs would be allowed.  If anything, the opposite has occurred:  the number of homicides has declined.

Does Defensive Gun Use Work?

Do the math:  2.2-2.5 million successful defensive gun uses vs. 21 thousand homicides.  

For every homicide using a gun, more than one hundred incidents were prevented through the defensive use of a gun.

Watch out, would-be thieves and murderers:  the researchers also report that 78% of gun owners would be willing to shoot a burglar.  They also noted that one third of all jailed felons had been “scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim.”

Notably, the researchers were fairly certain that large numbers of defensive gun uses are not reported to police.  

The actual ratio of defensive gun use vs. gun-related deaths – 100 to 1 – is probably even more lopsided.  

The CDC and the Facts

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) conducted its own survey in 2018.  Their data indicated that some number well beyond one million DGUs occurred per year.  Their survey found that approximately a third of all gun owners “have used a firearm defensively.”

Interestingly, the CDC, at the behest of gun-control advocates, removed the references from its website about defensive gun usage in 2021.  The Executive Director stated, “That 2.5 million number needs to be killed, buried, dug up, killed again, and buried again.”

So much for objectivity and facts in the face of politics.

In December of 2022, several U.S. Senators protested the removal of DGU data from the CDC website, calling it “a dereliction of duty.”  They demanded that it be reinstated, along with an explanation of why gun-control advocates were allowed to censor valid research and reporting.  

Clearly, such actions call into question the credibility and the reliability of any information presented by the CDC, on any subject.

Particularly in a free country, a government agency should not be using censorship.  What else is the CDC choosing to censor, say, on COVID?

Does gun control work?

As noted, the researchers stated that any form of gun control that disarms large numbers of prospective victims will carry significant social costs.  

Does the reality live up to that conclusion?  

Chicago has the strictest gun laws in the U.S.  Nevertheless, Chicago’s crime level is the highest in the nation.  Chicago politicians advocate much more restrictive gun control nationally, blaming the ready access to guns in other states as the source of their own city’s crime problem.  

Those other states, however, despite their less-restrictive gun laws, have substantially less crime.  Clearly, Chicago’s problem is the city’s own government and its historic governing processes – and perhaps its historic and ongoing level of corruption.

Australia banned guns several years ago.  Since then, crime is up.  Criminals know they face no capability for self-defense by their victims.  Meanwhile, illegal guns are being routinely smuggled into Australia on boats from southeast Asia.  

British laws make owning a gun by the law-abiding very difficult, and British policemen once worked unarmed.  That has changed:  they have increasingly found it necessary to carry guns. 

Why do anti-gun laws fail?

Gun control laws fail because criminals do not pay attention to the law; they do whatever they believe they can get away with.  

And criminals obtain guns by theft or through illicit channels – including those smuggled across national borders and over oceans.  Criminals do not hesitate to use guns to threaten the innocent.  Having a gun allows a criminal to control the situation and his victims, and to get what he wants.

Meanwhile the law-abiding are at the mercy of those criminals.

Why does gun-ownership work?

The personal ownership of guns is a deterrent because defensive gun use is not something a criminal wants to face.  Losing control of a situation is a criminal’s worst nightmare.

In the U.S. you have the choice:  be able to defend your family and yourself – or don’t.  

Scott Crosby
scott@scottschoice.com
www.scottschoice.com

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