Do Americans Really Use Guns for Self-Defense?

[SmithSmith]

A George Soros-financed anti-gun advocacy group is implying Americans don’t need weapons, citing its own statistics purportedly showing gun owners rarely actually use their firearms for self-defense. Instead, the Violence Policy Center contends, guns are used far more in criminal gun homicides.“In 2012, for every justifiable homicide in the United States involving a gun, guns were used in 32 criminal homicides,” states the study, released on Wednesday.

http://www.wnd.com/2015/06/soros-group- ... f-defense/

The NRA took the "we need to take care of our mentally ill" stance and turned it on its head. Stop blaming mental health for gun violence. The problem is guns. Gun violence is 20 times more prevalent in the United States than in other highly developed countries. And it's not OK. We need federal laws mandating commonsense gun safety practices. We need to do something before it's too late.

[eric]

Well when it comes to these mass shootings it definitely is mental health.

but it doesn't matter if they're used for self defense or not. We get to own guns because, like other vices, we've accepted the bad things that happen as the cost of doing business.

[John Galt]

using a gun in self defense rarely involves firing the weapon op, middle estimates put it around a million uses per year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_gun_use while there are about 10,000 gun related homicides a year (some of those justified)

[xdangerousxdavex]

[exploited]

In a country as vast as the US, with 300 million people, there is no doubt a substantial number of DGUs.

Galt cited a million, but that's probably total bullshit - more than likely they've got some really shitty methodology going on there. Only one in three people in America own a gun - the vast bulk of guns are owned by a minority of people. So let's say the total population of gun owners in the US is around 100 million. That would mean that one out of every 100 gun-owners used their gun defensively last year. To give some perspective, in a town with 100,000 people, there would be 1000 DGU's per year, or about three a day. Highly unlikely.

Based on the research that I have read, I'd say a more reasonable and accurate number is around 250-400,000 per year.

[eynon81]

[exploited]

[eynon81]

[eric]

[Philly]

Self defense is one of several uses for a gun, however, in practice most Americans who own guns primarily have them as toys.