This is calculated by taking the total number of defensive incidents represented by the survey responses(50 million) and dividing by the number of adult years of the average respondent, which is 30. Accordingto U.S. Census data, the average age of U.S. adults (i.e. the average age of those in the set of everyone 18years or older) is 48, which also matches our survey data. Thus, the average respondent of the survey has 30years of adult experience (48 years - 18 years = 30 adult years), over which the defensive incidents capturedin this survey are reported.
That is footnote nine of the survey. Something like fifty million claimed uses over 30 years. I mean this survey is like a poster for the multiple types of sampling and response survey bias. The Kleck study is the most often quoted, and most often absolutely ridiculed in the academic community. This study appears an attempt to duplicate the Kleck results, and has the same response bias.
Yes, rootin, tootin, Cowboys. It really is, like, that one day, at band camp, except it is the redneck version. Maybe it is just me, but I just don't get it. I grew up with guns, surrounded by guns. They were tools. And maybe more importantly, I grew up with dogs, working dogs. Dad and his rabbit dogs, Grandpa and his bird dogs.
I can think of no time in my life that I needed a gun. Not to protect myself, a loved one, and damn sure not property. Now, to put down a coyote, or a gopher for that matter, that is a different question. But a family friend was a pharmacist, he was robbed, at gunpoint, and he pulled his pistol from underneath the counter and shot the robber fleeing. Cops found the robber dead in the bushes, changed that pharmacist's life forever.
I had two classmates. One, became a cop and then a detective. Little short guy. The other, motorcycle gang member, drug dealer, huge dude. Undercover deal goes bad, one classmate shoots, and kills, the other. The big dude was gone. Believe it or not, it was heart breaking. And yes, it changed that detective's life forever.
In the end, we would not have this damn gun problem if we just had respect, for the gun itself. Sadly, that was the original mission of the NRA. Instill that respect and the rest takes care of itself. Maybe it is time I write. The reality is, there are a handful of rifles, and I am not talking models or makes, I am talking very specific rifles. Those rifles made this nation.
And yes, I am talking Audie Murphey's Tommy Gun, and Sergeant York's rifle, rubbing spit on the sight. But what about Peter Salem, and Primas Hall? Black, snipers, before there were snipers, during the American Revolution. No, you can wax about the second amendment till the cow's come home. Pistols are shit, even Lynard Skynard knew that. But this nation, and the rifle, they are one.
www.thetrace.org
