Study Disproves Major NRA Claim

A report released by the Violence Policy Center,  “Violence Policy Center Firearm Justifiable Homicides and
Non-Fatal Self-Defense Gun Use” destroys the NRA’s claim that “the only thing that stops a bad man with a gun is a good guy with a gun” and that only a miniscule amount of crimes are stopped by armed would-be victims.

The reality of self-defense gun use bears no resemblance to the exaggerated claims of the gun lobby and gun industry. The number of justifiable homicides that occur in our nation each year pale in comparison to criminal homicides, let alone gun suicides and fatal unintentional shootings. And contrary to the common stereotype promulgated by the gun lobby,those killed in justifiable homicideincidents don’t always fit the expected profile of an attack by a stranger: in 35.7 percent of the justifiable homicides that occurred in 2010 the persons shot were known to the shooter.

The devastation guns inflict on our nation each and every year is clear: nearly 32,000 dead, more than 73,000 wounded, and an untold number of lives and communities shattered. Unexamined claims of the efficacy and frequency of the self-defense use of firearms are the default rationale offered by the gun lobby and gun industry for this unceasing, bloody toll. The idea that firearms are frequently used in self-defense is the primary argument that the gun lobby and firearms industry use to expand the carrying of firearms into an ever-increasing number of public spaces and even to prevent the regulation of military-style semiautomatic assault weapons and highcapacity ammunition magazines. Yet this argument is hollow and the assertions false. When analyzing the most reliable data available, what is most striking is that in a nation of more than 300 million guns, how rarely firearms are used in self-defense.

By: Shades