The Right Response #5
Defensive Gun Users stop both Gun Violence and Massacres
1. Defensive guns protect you, your children and your loved ones
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
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 Unpublished surveys made many years ago by the CDC indicate nearly 2.5 million Defensive Gun Uses a year.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
. 2. Most DGUs are NOT recorded in official statistics
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
; with guns in every household, Switzerland has a tiny fraction of America's violent crime .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
, 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
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 .Back in 1995, the totally anonymous study of defensive gun usage
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
[also here ] 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 . In fact, reports Gun Control Lies , "Gun control advocates lie all the time."4. Concealed Carry Study
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 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.
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
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
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...
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
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.
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 to deceitfully conclude it's "difficult to gauge the long-term consequences of enforced gun ownership." FIVE pinocchios.
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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 **
- 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! ]
- Convince your neighbors to take responsibility for their own protection
- Slash the crime rate for your whole community
The Right Response? How to reduce violent crime and guarantee your safety!
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> There's much more to enjoy about your Right to Defend Yourself
- DOLLAR SAVINGS that encouraging gun ownership brings
- ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT takes off
- Effective implementation strategy and education ensure success in DECREASING VIOLENT CRIME
- RAPE DISAPPEARS at concealed-carry Colorado State University
- REDUCE RACIAL TENSIONS. Improve racial harmony with all your minorities - including responsible blacks
- The BENEFITS available from encouraging gun ownership
- The POLITICAL FUSS needs careful management and a cautious well-thought-out strategy
> The Right to Protect Yourself series of articles:
> The Right Response series of articles
The articles in The Right Response series are:
Addendum refuting 21 common liberal arguments
- The government response?
- Does a gun kill or protect you?
- Mass shootings continue to increase
- Gun control advocates
- Defensive gun uses
- Gun violence
- Instantaneous response
- Armed security or armed teachers?
- Second Amendment
- Does one size fit all? The 10th Amendment
- Why disarm responsible citizens?
- The UN Global Gun Grab
- Stop overworking the police
- Jury nullification
- Safe driving at speed
- How to defend the innocent?
- Who can you trust?
- Who's responsible for your family's safety?
Addendum refuting 21 common liberal arguments
DC101 R TRR-5 Defensive Gun Uses DGUs page95