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Defensive uses: 500,000-3,000,000 Suicides: 24,000 Murders: 14,000 - - - - - Defensive gun uses: https://datavisualizations.heritage.org/firearms/defens

Defensive uses: 500,000-3,000,000 Suicides: 24,000 Murders: 14,000 - - - - - Defensive gun uses: https://datavisualizations.heritage.org/firearms/defensive-gun-uses-in-the-us/ https://datavisualizations.heritage.org/firearms/defensive-g... Suicide and murder: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_S...

gbhn 4y ago
There are roughly a million violent crimes a year. It is not credible there are 3x as many defensive uses of firearms that are somehow being missed. The page you reference indexes a few thousand over several years. Seems likely an undercount as the page claims but not by that much by probably a couple orders of magnitude.
- epicureanideal 4y ago
  > There are roughly a million violent crimes a year Source? Seems low.
  - zmgsabst 4y ago
    Those numbers are (roughly) in line with FBI statistics, from 500,000 to 1,500,000 depending on if you include assaults. https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/ucr.asp?table_in=2 https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/ucr.asp?table_in=2
- zmgsabst 4y ago
  Sure — I’m willing to believe a lower number; that was just what I found.
- jka 4y ago
  As far as I can tell, the 500k-3m figure is from an unpublished[1] report that was commissioned by the CDC - further validation could be helpful. There is also separate disputation of the figure in a report[2] by Harvard's Injury Control Research Center. [1] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/01/16/the-study-that-gun-rights-activists-keep-citing-but-completely-misunderstand/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/01/16/the-s... [2] - https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/gun-threats-and-self-defense-gun-use-2/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/gun-thr...
seoaeu 4y ago
Your first link shows 2400 documented cases since 2019 which is more than I’d have expected. But clicking through those examples… many honestly don’t seem that sympathetic. Stuff like “shootout between X and Y, but Y shot second so it was self defense”. Or “X fatally shot Y with no witnesses to contradict his self defense claim”.

gbhn 4y ago

There are roughly a million violent crimes a year. It is not credible there are 3x as many defensive uses of firearms that are somehow being missed. The page you reference indexes a few thousand over several years. Seems likely an undercount as the page claims but not by that much by probably a couple orders of magnitude.

epicureanideal 4y ago
> There are roughly a million violent crimes a year Source? Seems low.
- zmgsabst 4y ago
  Those numbers are (roughly) in line with FBI statistics, from 500,000 to 1,500,000 depending on if you include assaults. https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/ucr.asp?table_in=2 https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/ucr.asp?table_in=2
zmgsabst 4y ago
Sure — I’m willing to believe a lower number; that was just what I found.
jka 4y ago
As far as I can tell, the 500k-3m figure is from an unpublished[1] report that was commissioned by the CDC - further validation could be helpful. There is also separate disputation of the figure in a report[2] by Harvard's Injury Control Research Center. [1] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/01/16/the-study-that-gun-rights-activists-keep-citing-but-completely-misunderstand/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/01/16/the-s... [2] - https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/gun-threats-and-self-defense-gun-use-2/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/gun-thr...

seoaeu 4y ago

Your first link shows 2400 documented cases since 2019 which is more than I’d have expected. But clicking through those examples… many honestly don’t seem that sympathetic. Stuff like “shootout between X and Y, but Y shot second so it was self defense”. Or “X fatally shot Y with no witnesses to contradict his self defense claim”.