Is this statistic accurate?

[Sambo82]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR9RN_iSKtg&feature=related

In this Stossel piece he claims at the 4min mark that guns are used definsively an astonishing (at least to me) 700,000 times per year. He doesn't cite a source and I was wondering if anyone was familiar with this study. If it's a fair and objective study I'd say that would be the coup de grace in any debate against an anti gun person

 

[Flopsweat]

It's hard to get a precise figure for several reasons. The real number could easily be over two million per year. There is a pretty good explanation here: http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcdguse.html This site has a lot of interesting firearms data relative to gun control issues. Also, if you google "defensive gun use statistics" I'm sure you'll find more.

 

[Loosedhorse]

That's conservative. Gary Kleck has put the figure at 2.5 million, but his is the high estimate.

Still that study was a long time ago, and there are more CCWers and more gun owners than before. So, his study is truer today than it ever has been.

What did I just say?

 

[The War Wagon]

That sounds like John Lott's study from the early '90's, and it was conservatively low THEN.

It's like the thousands of planes that take off & land safely every day; nobody CARES if you use a gun to repel boarders. It's the plane that crashes - the gun that gets used in a crime - that makes the news.

 

[sigpro]

Excellent piece of journalism, even if the numbers are too conservitive. Still if Rosie O'Donnell and Rev Al Sharpton think guns are bad, I think I might have to rethink my position. I mean they are both sensible, non-biased parties, right?

 

[rustedangel]

The only authority I need for that statistic comes from Stossel's moustache.

 

[sigpro]

The only authority I need for that statistic comes from Stossel's moustache.

Rumor is he won it from Tom Selleck in a card game.

 

[Swing]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR9RN...eature=related

Love the part where the crooks are making a run for it.

The only authority I need for that statistic comes from Stossel's moustache.

LOL! The 'stache aside, he seems a strong advocate of freedoms.

 

[mortablunt]

It's a very cautious estimate. That still puts the number of DGU's several times higher than the number of CGU's.