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You can't un-see what will turn up
Gunfight or Flee: New Study Finds No Advantages to Using a Firearm in Self-Defense Situations
http://www.thetrace.org/2015/07/defensive-gun-use-armed-with-reason-hemenway/
The study found that in incidents where a victim used a gun in self-defense, the likelihood of suffering an injury was 10.9 percent. Had the victim taken no action at all, the risk of injury was virtually identical: 11 percent. Having a gun also didn’t reduce the likelihood of losing property: 38.5 percent of those who used a gun in self-defense had property taken from them, compared to 34.9 percent of victims who used another type of weapon, such as a knife or baseball bat.
What’s more, the study found that while the likelihood of injury after brandishing a firearm was reduced to 4.1 percent, the injury rate after those defensive gun uses was similar to using any other weapon (5.3 percent), and was still greater than if the person had run away or hid (2.4 percent) or called the police (2.2 percent). These results were similar to previous research on older NCVS data which showed that, while using a firearm in self-defense did lower a person’s risk of subsequent injury, it was less effective than using any weapon other than a gun.
http://www.thetrace.org/2015/07/defensive-gun-use-armed-with-reason-hemenway/
The study found that in incidents where a victim used a gun in self-defense, the likelihood of suffering an injury was 10.9 percent. Had the victim taken no action at all, the risk of injury was virtually identical: 11 percent. Having a gun also didn’t reduce the likelihood of losing property: 38.5 percent of those who used a gun in self-defense had property taken from them, compared to 34.9 percent of victims who used another type of weapon, such as a knife or baseball bat.
What’s more, the study found that while the likelihood of injury after brandishing a firearm was reduced to 4.1 percent, the injury rate after those defensive gun uses was similar to using any other weapon (5.3 percent), and was still greater than if the person had run away or hid (2.4 percent) or called the police (2.2 percent). These results were similar to previous research on older NCVS data which showed that, while using a firearm in self-defense did lower a person’s risk of subsequent injury, it was less effective than using any weapon other than a gun.
Estimates of Defensive Gun Use range from 1,600/year (the floor) to Kleck's 2.5 million notwithstanding the fact that the 2.5 number is mathematically impossible when factored against empirical data like hospital records, victimization surveys, gun violence archives, and police records. It's kinda' hard to defend the 2.5 M number if only .062% of incidents can be actually verified.
One thing that is painfully obvious is that 130,000 are shot (yeah, that was a pun in poor taste) in this country every year. Ya' wanna' know what that looks like? Do a Google Image search on "gunshot". No, seriously DON'T do that search. I did and it was a major fuck up on my part. You won't sleep for weeks. You can't un-see what will turn up.