How to stop gun proliferation in the US

[guillaumeb]

163. You state that, in your view, the chief reason for carrying is self defense.

If this is your view, and talking about defensive gun use, (DGU),

In contrast, DGUs cannot be directly counted, but have to be estimated. Police and hospitals do not keep track of DGUs, nor investigate DGUs as crimes are investigated, so currently there is no way to directly count DGUs. The most common way to estimate DGUs is to do a survey: the researchers pick a number of people who they think are representative of the area or region they are investigating, and then ask those people if they have used their guns defensively. The incidence of DGU is that area or region under study is then calculated from the responses of those surveyed. This method of estimation depends on a couple of critical methodological factors:

So these statistics about DGU are not reliable numbers, they are estimates, thus subject to the ability and integrity of the ones commissioning the survey.

“Estimates of gun use for self defense vary widely, in part due to definitional differences in self-defensive gun use, different data sources and questions about accuracy of data, particularly when self-reported. The NCVS [National Crime Victim Survey] has estimated 60,000 to 120,000 defensive uses of guns per year (McDowell et al. 1998). Another body of research estimated annual gun use for self defense to be much higher, up to 2.5 million incidents, suggesting that self defense can be an important crime deterrent (Kleck and Gertz, 1995).” (CDC report, pg. 45-46)

So the estimated range of DGUs runs from 60,000 per year to 2.5 million. Quite a variance. A massive variance.

And you and others here speak and have spoken of believing that carrying a gun for protection will give you a better chance of avoiding being a victim. If that belief is true, there should be some statistical evidence of this.

* According to the CDC report: “The 2005 National Research Council study found no persuasive evidence from available studies that passage of right to carry laws decrease or increase violent crime. ”

SO if carrying does not decrease or increase violent crime it would seem that the belief that carrying a gun helps to make one safer is an article of faith unsupported by evidence.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/9/17/1238623/-Defensive-Gun-Use-The-CDC-Report-on-Gun-Violence