Armed Citizen Analysis

[Shaky]

Here's a similar study which has not been cherry picked (though for obvious reasons, anyone who lost a fight in the worst of ways would not be included).

http://www.fsu.edu/~fstime/FS-Times/Volume2/Issue1/guns.html

 

[MachIVshooter]

You'd be surprised at how many people dump their bigger calibers after they've shot them for awhile. I had a client just this week dump the .357 Sig for something smaller. He said: "All I knew about guns was what I learned from TV."

True. And the number of 9mm/.38 cal used wouldn't have surprised me at all if it were mostly CCW defense situations that were reported.

My surprise just comes from knowing what I and many friends and aquaintences keep for HD. While we may carry smaller guns, most of us are using larger, more powerful firearms for HD (.40, 10mm, .45). I also would have expected the long gun category to be larger on account of shotguns.

 

[HeadJunter]

True. And the number of 9mm/.38 cal used wouldn't have surprised me at all if it were mostly CCW defense situations that were reported.

My surprise just comes from knowing what I and many friends and aquaintences keep for HD. While we may carry smaller guns, most of us are using larger, more powerful firearms for HD (.40, 10mm, .45). I also would have expected the long gun category to be larger on account of shotguns.

Most people who have guns for self-defense are not "gun people" and pay no attention to what "experts" tell them they should keep for self-defense.

For instance, the 2009 ATF manufacturing report, the latest year available, indicates that the Ruger LCP was 50% of Ruger's entire production of pistols (not including revolvers). This despite the fact that most "experts" tell people that the .380 is an inadequate caliber for self-defense.

 

[RyanAnchors]

It is also misleading because it might lead someone who hasn't researched to think guns have been used less than 500 times for self-defense in that time period.
They had been used millions of times for self-defense in that time period. Don't give the antis the ammo to twist statistics.

Also, I can sum up the methodology cited above which really just follows the old school rules.
Have a gun. Practice. Mind-state.

 

[jsimmons]

That's not something we should advertise, as the Anti's would use it to say that requiring "safe-storage" does not impede the ability to use a gun in defense.

Safe storage isn't a bad thing as long as we're talking about BEING safely stored as opposed to being required to be IN a gun safe.

 

[statelineblues]

One more example...

http://news.yahoo.com/iowa-congressman-family-safe-home-invasion-131923099.html

 

[Carl N. Brown]

We do have to recognize the limitations of the sample: looking at the June 2011, American Rifleman, the armed citizen, as an example, most are clippings from newspapers or television reports. The NRA does ask for first hand accounts, but I suspect NRA asks documentation.

Due to bias in the news about guns, positive gun stories are exceptional. Of self defense incidents recounted to me, half were not reported to the police and none generated news coverage.

That does not mean that this sample is not useful, but we must keep in mind that it is primarily a sample of successful self defense incidents that were deemed newsworthy.

You won't be able to project absolute numbers about self defense with a gun, but you do get some good stats on the nature of civilian self defense from the sample as long as you recognize it is mostly a sample of successful self defense incidents deemed newsworthy by newspapers or television.

It is kinda like using the FBI UCR table on justifiable homicides: killing of a felon in the line of duty by a police officer, and killing of a felon during commission of felony by a citizen (from police report, not reflecting eventual adjudication by coroner, medical examiner, district attorney, grand jury, trial judge, trial jury or appellate court). You can get a good idea of methods or weapons commonly used, but not the absolute number of events per year.