So, we are starting a new weekly segment here at GunCarrier, called: True Stories of America’s Defensive Gun Use. (Read accounts from 2019 and 2020 here.). / You can attempt to comb through police records, or you can take surveys. Many gun control advocates have fooled themselves—and far too many others—into believing that we create safer communities by placing increasingly burdensome restrictions on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. Let’s get started. While COVID-19-related bills have taken up much of the national spotlight, several gun control bills are primed for passage this week in the House. Amy Swearer Join the millions of people who benefit from The Daily Signal’s fair, accurate, trustworthy reporting with direct access to: Don’t have time to read the Washington Post or New York Times? March 10, 2021, President Biden last month called on Congress to enact a plethora of gun legislation, which would create new barriers for women who seek to exercise their Second Amendment rights. A recent study published in The Journal of Preventive Medicine offers new support for the argument that owning a gun does not make you safer.The study, led by David Hemenway, Ph.D., of the Harvard T.H. March is Women’s History Month, yet Congress appears ready to celebrate in the worst way possible by creating more barriers for women who seek to exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. “Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns (i.e., incidents in which a gun was ‘used’ by the crime victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender) have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies,” the CDC study, entitled “Priorities For Research to Reduce the Threat … In the early hours of Nov. 2, 2013, in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, a pounding at the door startled Theodore Wafer from his slumber.Unable to find his cell phone to call the police, he grabbed the shotgun he kept loaded in his closet. Despite the limitations on data, the Defensive Gun Use Database is an incredibly important tool because these confirmed cases help prove that the “good guy with a gun” is not a myth. Did COVID-19 Permanently Change Our View of Government Power? That makes them both constitutionally suspect and bad policy. The fact that this self-defender is facing murder charges for this defensive gun use is mind-boggling, as the news stories below show. All of the law-abiding citizens featured in this database successfully defended their liberties, lives, or livelihoods with the lawful use of a firearm. (Photo: Vesnaandjic/Getty Images). 11 Examples of Defensive Gun Use That Undermine Push for Gun Control; 11 Examples of Defensive Gun Use That Undermine Push for Gun Control. 2 likes • 2 shares. Ever feel like the only difference between the New York Times and Washington Post is the name? This database, therefore, is not intended to be comprehensive. Criminologists Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz published a study back in 1995 in which they found that gun use accounted more for defensive gun use than it did for criminal activity.” A literature review of thirteen studies in their paper provides a range of between 800,000-2.5 million SDGUs. The most comprehensive study ever conducted about defensive gun use in the United States was a 1995 survey published by criminologist Gary Kleck in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. A subreddit dedicated to cataloging incidents in the United States where legally owned or legally possessed guns are used to deter or stop crime or personal injury/death. Defensive gun use. These cases are not based on hearsay, but on verifiable reports found through public sources. Defensive Gun Use, police officer saved by armed civilian, police officer saved … But the gun control bills currently before Congress would impose significant and unnecessary burdens on law-abiding Americans who, like those highlighted above, simply desire an effective means of protecting their rights and liberties. In other words, anti-gunners believe that the term “defensive gun use” is code for “I got away with murder.” But this idea is 180 degrees from […] Amy Swearer is a legal fellow in the Edwin Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Although definitions of defensive gun use vary, it is generally defined as the use of a firearm to protect and defend one’s self, family, others, and/or property against crime or victimization. Instead, it highlights just a fraction of the incredible number of times Americans relied on the Second Amendment—not the government getting there in time—to protect their inalienable rights. A lot of statistics have been thrown around in the national gun control debate. March is Women’s History Month, yet Congress appears ready to celebrate in the worst way possible by creating more barriers for women who seek to exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. To sound off, please email [email protected] and we will consider publishing your remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Online. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost every major study on defensive gun use has found that Americans use their firearms defensively between 500,000 and 3 million times each year. Tap on a circle to see more information in the map above. 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The reality, however, is that firearms are used far more often for lawful purposes than they are used to commit acts of criminal violence. Worse, these gun control bills would not meaningfully reduce the risk that those rights and liberties indeed will need protection. The Daily Signal, by Emma Nietzsche Original Article. The use of guns in self-defense by private citizens is extremely rare. The frequency of incidents involving DGU, and their effectiveness in providing safety and reducing crime is a controversial issue in gun politics and criminology, chiefly in the United States. / The examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use that we found in February. Data compiled by Amy Swearer. Different authors and studies employ different criteria for what constitutes a defensive gun use which leads to controversy in comparing statistical results. Can We Restore America? The examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use that we found in February. Note:  Originally published on April 13, 2020. Article by Emma Nietzsche and Amy Swearer from Daily Signal. Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging … The Latest Crime News Provides Evidence in Favor of Armed Citizens, New Cases of Armed Citizens Stopping Criminals in February, Latest News of Self-Defense With Firearms Contradicts Gun Control, The Second Amendment Saved These Gun Owners’ Lives in April, Gun Rights Made All the Difference for These Intended Victims, Why These Defensive Uses of Firearms Should Disarm Second Amendment Skeptics, Guns Saved These Americans From Assault and Robbery in July, Lawful Gun Owners Defended Their Lives and Livelihoods in August, These Gun Owners Were Able to Confront Criminals in September, These Law-Abiding People Used Guns to Defend Themselves in October. They never released the findings, or even acknowledged they had studied the topic. Almost every major study on the issue found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times a year, according to a 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. FBI Reports on Firearm Use The National Institute of Justice (under the DOJ) shows the violent crime rate, including crimes with firearms, dramatically fell during the last 25 years. Emma Nietzsche Guns. Posted By: jdyson1788, 3/11/2021 12:27:56 PM March is Women’s History Month, yet Congress appears ready to celebrate in the worst way possible by creating more barriers for women who seek to exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Members. The FBI report on civilian use of firearms in self defense is very promising (photo from FBI). Everyone wants communities that are safe from gun-related violence and to keep firearms out of the hands of those who are a danger to themselves or others. @AmySwearer. The latter is much more accurate, because apparently, not all crimes get reported to the police. Emma Nietzsche is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. For this reason, The Daily Signal each month publishes an article highlighting some of the previous month’s many news stories on defensive gun use that you may have missed—or that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. Then get The Morning Bell, an early morning edition of the day’s most important political news, conservative commentary and original reporting from a team committed to following the truth no matter where it leads. Have an opinion about this article? The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. That matches the results of Gary Kleck's controversial surveys, and it … In a nation of some 97 million households, about half of which own one or more firearms, is a rate of defensive gun use (DGU) which amounts to about 1.4% per year an unreasonably high figure? You may explore more by using The Heritage Foundation’s interactive Defensive Gun Use Database. A Second Look at a Controversial Study About Defensive Gun Use Criminologist Gary Kleck revises his paper on the incidence of the use of firearms for self-protection. Double-tap on the map to zoom + drag to pan. Self-defense gun use is rare and not more effective at preventing injury than other protective actions Victims use guns in less than 1% of contact crimes, and women never use guns to protect themselves against sexual assault (in more than 300 cases). Thus, although survey-reported defensive gun uses themselves rarely involve criminal behavior (that is, the defender did not use the gun to commit a … Unfortunately, however, none of these proposals is meaningfully directed at the root causes of gun violence. These 11 Examples of Defensive Gun Use Undermine Push for More Gun Control. Here’s one you probably haven’t heard: in the 1990s, there were more than 2.2 million defensive gun uses each year in the United States.. That was the finding of a 1993 study (“Results from the National Self-Defense Survey,” updated in 1998) by Florida State University criminologists Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz. Defensive Gun Use There are really only a few ways that one can attempt to determine just how many DGUs there are in the US in any given year. The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. This is hardly surprising, given that just last month, President Joe Biden called on Congress to enact a plethora of new federal gun legislation. Scroll to zoom and click + drag to pan. Design and Development: Data visual produced by John W. Fleming and Jay Simon. We have good reason to believe that many of these defensive gun uses aren’t reported to police, much less make the local or national news. The examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use that we found in February. Despite the limitations on data, these confirmed cases of defensive gun use help prove that the “good guy with a gun” is not a myth, but an integral part of American society. One of the most commonly cited estimates of defensive gun uses, published in 1995 by criminologists Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz, concluded there are … Perceptions of defensive gun use are re…