Does Owning a Gun Make You Safer?

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Gary Kleck's study of defensive gun use has been shown by numerous scholars to not be plausible.  His 2.5 million defensive gun uses a year has been called "the most outrageous number mentioned in a policy discussion by an elected official." (Cook, Ludwig, Hemenway, 1997 - see evidence)  And while Marvin Wolfgang might not have found fault with Kleck's methodology he did point out the limitations of survey research and the "problems of small numbers and extrapolating from relatively small samples to the universe."

This problem of extrapolation can be noted in the fact that Kleck reported that 207,000 times a year the gun defender thought he wounded or killed the offender.  Yet that would be twice the number of people treated in emergency rooms each year for non-fatal firearm injuries and most of these people are victims of assault, suicide attempts and accidental shootings rather that criminals shot by defenders.

Study after study has found that a gun in the home is associated with an increased risk of homicide and suicide.  And while guns are used to prevent some crimes they are used far more often to commit crimes.  Guns are used to kill, maim, rob, assault, threaten and intimidate far more often than they are used in self-defense.

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We’re a bit surprised at the suggestion that violent crime, or the one quarter of it that is committed with guns, is at a particularly high level. The FBI just reported crime statistics for 2007, showing that violent crime and murder have dropped 38 percent and 43 percent, respectively, since 1991. Since 2002, violent crime has been lower than anytime since 1974, and since 1999 murder has been lower than anytime since 1966.

Not only has crime gone down as gun control restrictions have been eliminated and the number of guns has risen, study after study—by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institutes of Justice, the Congressional Research Service, the CDC, the Library of Congress, independent researchers and, occasionally, even researchers who support gun control—find that gun control does not reduce crime. Just this week, a study by a researcher who has supported gun control found that restrictions on gun shows do not reduce murder rates.

Sure, there are a few anti-gun researchers out there who repeatedly take money from the radically anti-gun Joyce Foundation and other donors, to produce half-baked papers masquerading as legitimate studies. But they have been rejected by independent researchers.

Moreover, the basic fact is, more Americans own more guns than ever, and violent crime is at a 30-year low; murder is at a 40-year low. States that allow people to carry guns for protection have lower violent crime rates. And people use guns for defense against crime 3-4 times more often than to commit crime. We continue to argue about gun control mostly because many in the media support gun control and report gun control supporters’ claims without regard for their accuracy.