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Originally Posted by basswipe
You're right its not true it's actually a larger ratio.I used "tenfold" as a matter of keeping it simple.
The source I use for debunking the myths the antigun crowd likes to use is the Kleck Report.Google the name Gary Kleck.Its some of the only truly scientific research ever done on the gun control issue.
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Well, according to my Google research the Kleck survey done in 1993 reported about 2 million defensive gun uses per year by law abiding citizens.
According to the Department of Justice in 1994 estimated this to be closer to 1.5 million defensive gun uses. They also concluded...
"Evidence suggests that this survey and others like it overestimate the frequency with which firearms were used by private citizens to defend against criminal attack."
According to the Department of Justice during the same time there were about 1.3 million nonfatal firearm related violent crime victims, this obviously doesn't include the 15,000 or so that were killed.
So at best it's more like a 1:1 ratio.
This also doesn't include such alarming statistics as the increased probability a gun kept in the home is to kill another family member (43x in 1986) or the increased suicide rate in homes with guns.
But I'm not here to write a book, just that I don't believe the ratio is 10:1 or even 5:1. Given the millions of other things a person can do to keep them self safe, it doesn't seem like all that compelling of an argument.
I'd also note that since those studies, the number of gun crimes has gone waaayyyy down for reasons other than people packing heat.
And more importantly, if giving PIEMMA my money is the best way to save my life, I'll do it every time and not feel my courage is diminished in any way
If you have nothing to prove, you take the smart way out...so what do you have to prove?
-spence