Brain357
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- Mar 30, 2013
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There are only about 8,500 homicides each year. Gun owners are a minority of the population. So the most lives that could possibly be saved by defense with a gun is well under 8,500.
The more likely number of defenses each year is much closer to 100k per the NCVS.
What really makes you safer is not being involved in criminal activity.
Not going to disagree about not being involved in criminal activity, but sometimes criminal activity shows up unsolicited.
Anti-second amendment folks like the small numbers, pro-second like the huge numbers...I choose a reasonable number far below the average.
And that a paltry 2% of defensive firearm uses saved a life is extremely conservative.
2% might be conservative, but 2% of what number? I say 108k by the NCVS is the most accurate. That means about 2100. Now based on the 800k that would be 16,000. Well it can't be 16k because we know there are only 8,500 homicides and gun owners are a minority of the population. Gun owners would have to be a magnet for homicide if they were defending twice as many as are occurring. A gun owner would be twice as likely to have somebody attempt to kill them. I see no reason why that would be the case. And gun defenders are often themselves killed. So the number has to be under 8,500 which is one reason I believe the 108k is a far more accurate number for DGUs.
Please explain how a non gun study is more accurate than an actual gun study that actually asks about using a gun for self defense...
The NCVS is not a gun study and never directly asks about guns...at all...in the entire study......
I already have in a few ways. First gun studies will have way more false positives. Gun studies do not agree. Every time they do a study they arrive at very different numbers. Clearly they are not accurate. If we use the 2.5 million then just about every gun owner would have had a DGU the last 30 years. Clearly that isn't true as owners with a DGU are rare. If we used Missourians conservative 2% that would mean there are 50,000 lives saved each year. Given gun owners are a minority and only 11 million carry that number is completely insane. There can't more than 5X as many homicides defended than are committed.