What would be the number?

[pablo_marmol]

2. Even though I believe that guns result in a "null effect" w/regard to violence.........

.........this sentence is somewhat problematic:

As it stands right now, the lowest estimate of defensive gun uses per year in the US is around 50,000, while the number of deaths from murder or accident by firearm are around 15,000.

DGU's no doubt outnumber gun murders by a wide margin, but since you can't prove a negative - how many people weren't killed by virtue of the DGU - we'll never know for certain how many actual lives are saved via DGU.

Certainly, we can infer that some percentage of folks are alive today by virtue of a DGU -- but deciding on a percentage? Hmmm.

And again -- educated (liberal!) individuals such as Dr. Gary Kleck point out that the best available evidence suggests that DGU's effectively cancel murder by gun.

Edited to add: The question you pose is most certainly a fair one, in that many of us have responded to the other thread wherein the shoe is on the other foot.