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The Right Response #5

Defensive Gun Users stop both Gun Violence and Massacres

1. Defensive guns protect you, your children and your loved ones

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Despite enormous evidence to the contrary, gun control advocates and Democrats continue to insist that even more restrictions on law-abiding citizens defending themselves and their family from violent criminals will stop criminal gun violence! Yet leading Democratic politicians who either carry or use armed guards obviously do NOT believe this. It's simply untrue.

Whenever a defensive gun is not fired and no one is injured, a Defensive Gun Use is not reported to the police, so the
2.16 million annual DGUs Open Page in a new Tab measure the enormous number of violent crimes stopped by defensive guns each year.

Each and every Defensive Gun Use shows the immense value of being armed and able to defend yourself 24/7/365. With double the number of guns AND
the big decrease in violent crime, how many DGUs are there nowadays?

**UPDATE**. Unpublished surveys made many years ago by the CDC indicate nearly 2.5 million Defensive Gun Uses a year. These surveys confirm the 2.16 million found by Professor Gary Kleck's ostensibly controversial survey, and so confirm that innocent people often defend themselves from violent crime with a gun, see
Reason magazine reveals DGUs surveyed but not published by the CDC Open Page in a new Tab.

2. Most DGUs are NOT recorded in official statistics

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A defensive gun use (DGU) is where you use a gun to defend yourself or your family against attack - a rapist, robber, mugger, home invader etc. - whether you actually need to fire it or not. Official statistics only count 100,000 or so DGUs in more recent non-anonymous NCVS crime surveys conducted by the Bureau of Justice.

But the vast majority of DGUs aren't recorded because the perp stops his attack once he sees his prey is armed, the gun isn't fired, no one is injured and since there's no serious crime to report, the police aren't informed.

Yet gun control advocates ignore all the empirical evidence proving that, by thwarting attacks by criminals, terrorists, spree shooters and the insane, a DGU can save your life. With a virtually complete gun ban,
the British violent crime rate is well over FIVE times America's Open Page in a new Tab; with guns in every household, Switzerland has a tiny fraction of America's violent crime Open Page in a new Tab.

Wikipedia reports 33,599 firearm-related US gun deaths per year, but gun suicides are two thirds (21,334) while drug wars and criminal shoot-outs cause many of the others. What about the ostensibly higher homicide rate in America than some disarmed European countries? It's BOGUS - caused by the exceptionally high murder rate in fanatical gun-control cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, etc, etc… Remove these Democratic-controlled cities' gun deaths along with gun-suicides from the calculations and America's supposedly higher homicide rate vanishes!

3. Defensive Gun Uses in America

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The amazingly low estimate of 55,000 DGUs per year (later revised to 116,000) in the National Crime Victim Survey (NCVS) Open Page in a new Tab, is no surprise. It stated outright that it was carried out by the Bureau of Justice and recorded respondents' names and addresses, as well as asked about crime in general rather than any direct questions about DGUs. Therefore its findings are some 97% lower than other more comprehensive studies including the 1990s CDC surveys. But they are a reasonable proxy for the number of DGUs actually reported to the police.

Gun control fanatics insist Open Page in a new Tab that all DGUs are reported to the police and pretend there are no others. They ignore anti-gun campaigner Marvin E. Wolfgang, who calls himself "as strong a gun-control advocate as can be found among criminologists" in his seminal article - A Tribute to a View I Have Opposed - where he CATEGORICALLY DISMISSES the idea that the NCVS contradicts the far larger number of DGUs found by Kleck and Gertz Open Page in a new Tab.

Back in 1995, the
totally anonymous study of defensive gun usage Open Page in a new Tab at Florida State College of Criminology and Criminal Justice by Professors Kleck and Gertz found 2.16 million DGUs a year. With the increase in guns, modern estimates are even higher, over three million defensive uses per year. That's one person in a hundred using a gun in self-defense once a year.

The
Violence Policy Center Open Page in a new Tab [also here Open Page in a new Tab] deceptively use the specious NCVS number. Anti-gun campaigners such as smartgunlaws quote it as ”about 98.5% lower” while irrationally dismissing the highest over-3-million estimate and simply ignoring the many others. Other gun control lies by vox.com are debunked here Open Page in a new Tab. In fact, reports Gun Control Lies Open Page in a new Tab, "Gun control advocates lie all the time."

4. Concealed Carry Study

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Gun ban INCREASES violent crime, Encouraging guns DECREASES violent crime by 47.7%
After Colorado’s 2003 concealed carry law was enacted, the University of Colorado disarmed their students, while Colorado State University allowed them to concealed carry. Since the external factors are reasonably similar, their very different results maintained over 12 years give an eye-opening comparison of their effectiveness.

Colorado State which encouraged concealed carry enjoyed an immediate drop of 48% in violent crime (blue bars, from 30 in 2002 to 16 in 2003). But at the University of Colorado Boulder campus (brown bars), the publicity from the gun ban they claimed would increase safety increased violent crime by 10% instead.

The publicity at Colorado State achieved such a dramatic drop in rape and violent crime because it warned their violent criminals that their prey could be armed. If you're a violent criminal then knowing your prey may have a gun will make you think twice. Your fear of being injured discourages you from attack...

Four years later, the violent crime rate at the gun-free University of Colorado had risen by 21% and rape was up by 24%, while the guns at Colorado State had slashed violent crime by 87% and rape was down by a massive 88%. (
results normalized Open Page in a new Tab or Window per 100,000 students.)

Twelve years later, Colorado State with concealed carry had 9 violent crimes in 2014, down from 30 in 2002. They saw a similar drop in rape. These two universities' very different results demonstrate the immense value of defensive guns in protecting your family, your women and your children from violent criminals.
Get your copy of the study here. And if you carry a gun, you may be interested in the legal protection offered by the US Concealed Carry Association. No, we have no stake in the organization, but it does seem worthwhile checking them out...

5. Guns in Kennesaw, GA, Deter Violent Crime

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Since Kennesaw encouraged armed defense, violent crime has plummeted and economic development has sky-rocketed
Kennesaw in Georgia encouraged their responsible citizens to be able to defend their families from violent criminals in 1982, and violent crime immediately plummeted by 74 percent. It also slashed property crime. Kennesaw's violent crime rate has been around a quarter of the US National Average for years, all their violent criminals feared being shot and injured and left town!

Violent crime dramatically increased when guns were banned in UK. Australia experienced a 40% increase in assault and a 20% increase in sexual assault following their stricter gun laws. Although gun control advocates pretend that violent crime is caused rather than decreased by guns, all across the USA, as gun ownership has increased, the evidence shows that violent crime has decreased.

If
Kennesaw's encouragement of their responsible citizens to be able to defend their families were extended across America, there'd be a million less violent crimes each year. Wider gun ownership makes criminals more cautious about their own safety, they fear being shot and injured...

6. The Hatchet Job on Kennesaw's Violent Crime Results

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Kennesaw's amazing drop in violent crime to a quarter of National Average has continued for more than thirty years. Yet in the gun controllers bible, authors Englander and Snell do their best to belittle Kennesaw's very impressive reduction in violent crime, see their lies, deception and untruths here. Open Page in a new Tab

The "thoroughly updated" second edition of the supposedly unbiased "Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia" was published in 2012 while the first came out in 2002. But Englander and Snell continue using obsolete 1985 data on Kennesaw's crime rate rather than later data showing even less violent crime.

There are a dozen or more ways in which their seemingly unbiased report is actually a well-written but mendacious, highly misleading hatchet job. They ignore wide-spread findings that
criminals avoid houses when they know the occupants are armed Open Page in a new Tab to deceitfully conclude it's "difficult to gauge the long-term consequences of enforced gun ownership." FIVE pinocchios.

7. The Government's misleading low number of Defensive Gun Uses

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A New York Times article on defensive gun use by Juliet Lapidos slams "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" as “catchy” while ignoring its rational truth. Since it was the NRA who report the professional criminologists' survey results, she demeaningly dismisses the couple of million DGUs a year it found as "bogus."

Lapidos professes the Violence Policy Center number is accurate, ignores the CDC 1990s surveys and pretends that DGUs are actually quite rare. But the VPC just uses
the NCVS survey numbers which don't count the millions of DGUs not reported to the police. The full report on the seriously flawed BOJ survey is here. Open Page in a new Tab

The National Crime Victim Survey (NCVS) was designed to study crime, not defensive gun usage. It's a good estimate of those recorded by the police but
misses DGUs in which threats and violent attacks were thwarted by showing a gun. But gun control advocates simply ignore this inconvenient truth and pretend that the NCVS counts ALL DGUs.

"Luxembourg, where handguns are totally banned and ownership of any kind of gun is minimal, had a murder rate nine times higher than Germany in 2002."

8. DGUs save money - lots of money

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The US government study of the tangible costs of violent crime by the National Institute of Health found that violent crimes cost both citizens and society LOTS of money. The total cost for each robbery ($21,398) comprises the $13,827 Criminal Justice System Cost; the $4,272 Crime Career Cost; and the $3,299 Crime Victim Cost.

The study measured the total cost of each murder to society as $1,278,424; of each rape/sexual assault (legacy definition) as $41,247; of each robbery as $21,398; and of each aggravated assault as $19,537.

To estimate the savings of armed citizens thwarting attack by showing a gun, let's take the savings of each DGU as $20,000 (the lowest number rounded) and the Criminal Justice System Cost savings as $13,000. Therefore 3 million annual DGUs save the US Criminal Justice System around $40 billion with total savings to American citizens and society of $60 billion a year.

President Obama's CDC study found that "
defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals with estimates of annual uses ranging... to more than 3 million per year.” Is there really anything implausible in the idea that just 1% (one percent) of guns are used defensively each year?

9. Guns Deter Pirates as well as Criminals

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The number of ship hijackings off the East coast of Africa has decreased in recent years. Why? Common sense has overcome the illogical aversion to defensive gun use, and many ships now carry armed guards.

As a result, piracy off the Somalia coast has dropped dramatically, from 49 in 2010, to 31 in 2011, and just a handful in 2012. Pirates have never successfully hijacked a ship that had armed guards.” says
the Expensive, Diminishing Threat of Somali Piracy report.

Food for Thought

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170 million new guns, 51% decrease in violent crime since 1991
Average deaths in a shooting rampage when stopped by police: 14.3. But average deaths when stopped by civilians: far less - just 2.3.

Concealed carry is entirely optional, so discourage violent criminals and terrorists from attacking your people. Encourage your qualified, law-abiding citizens to be able to defend themselves, their family and their property.

Despite media misunderstanding and misrepresentation, Discouraging Criminals by encouraging teachers and staff to be armed is neither mandatory nor compulsory gun ownership. It's your choice whether or not you want your children defended from a mentally disturbed school shooter.

** Your Next Step **

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You want your family safe and protected from criminal assault. Learn how to persuade hardened criminals to fear for their safety and leave town. Enjoy the whole story here:
  • Dramatically improve your family's safety
  • Do the police or the government have any legal duty to protect you [The DC Court of Appeals says No! Open Page in a new Tab]
  • Convince your neighbors to take responsibility for their own protection
  • Slash the crime rate for your whole community
Protect you and your neighbors' vulnerable family, children and property by Discouraging your Criminals. Find out how with this dynamic Special Report: The Right Response. Available for a limited period at a special introductory price. Get it today - right now!

The Right Response? How to reduce violent crime and guarantee your safety!


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