And: From a Duke Univ. paper: http://people.duke.edu/~gnsmith/articles/myths.htm
MYTH #3:"Since a gun in a home is many times more likely to kill a family member than to stop a criminal, armed citizens are not a deterrent to crime."
This myth, stemming from a superficial "study" of firearm accidents in the
Cleveland, Ohio, area, represents a comparison of 148 accidental deaths
(including suicides) to the deaths of 23 intruders killed by home owners over a
16-year period. 2
Gross errors in this and similar "studies"--with even greater claimed ratios
of harm to good--include: the assumption that a gun hasn't been used for
protection unless an assailant dies; no distinction is made between handgun and
long gun deaths; all accidental firearm fatalities were counted whether the
deceased was part of the "family" or not; all accidents were counted whether
they occurred in the home or not, while self-defense outside the home was
excluded; almost half the self-defense uses of guns in the home were excluded on
the grounds that the criminal intruder killed may not have been a total stranger
to the home defender; suicides were sometimes counted and some self-defense
shootings misclassified. Cleveland's experience with crime and accidents during
the study period was atypical of the nation as a whole and of Cleveland since
the mid-1970s. Moreover, in a later study, the same researchers noted that
roughly 10% of killings by civilians are justifiable homicides. 3
The "guns in the home" myth has been repeated time and again by the media,
and anti-gun academics continue to build on it. In 1993, Dr. Arthur Kellermann
of Emory University and a number of colleagues presented a study that claimed to
show that a home with a gun was much more likely to experience a homicide.4
However, Dr. Kellermann selected for his study only homes where homicides had
taken place--ignoring the millions of homes with firearms where no harm is
done--and a control group that was not representative of American households. By
only looking at homes where homicides had occurred and failing to control for
more pertinent variables, such as prior criminal record or histories of
violence, Kellermann et al. skewed the results of this study. Prof. Kleck wrote
that with the methodology used by Kellermann, one could prove that since
diabetics are much more likely to possess insulin than non-diabetics, possession
of insulin is a risk factor for diabetes. Even Dr. Kellermann admitted this in
his study: "It is possible that reverse causation accounted for some of the
association we observed between gun ownership and homicide." Law Professor
Daniel D. Polsby went further, "Indeed the point is stronger than that: 'reverse
causation' may account for most of the association between gun ownership and
homicide. Kellermann's data simply do not allow one to draw any conclusion."5
Research conducted by Professors James Wright and Peter Rossi,6 for a
landmark study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, points to the armed
citizen as possibly the most effective deterrent to crime in the nation. Wright
and Rossi questioned over 1,800 felons serving time in prisons across the nation
and found:
- 81% agreed the "smart criminal" will try to find out if a potential victim
is armed. - 74% felt that burglars avoided occupied dwellings for fear of being shot.
- 80% of "handgun predators" had encountered armed citizens.
- 40% did not commit a specific crime for fear that the victim was armed.
- 34% of "handgun predators" were scared off or shot at by armed victims.
- 57% felt that the typical criminal feared being shot by citizens more than
he feared being shot by police.
Professor Kleck estimates that annually 1,500-2,800 felons are legally killed
in "excusable self-defense" or "justifiable" shootings by civilians, and
8,000-16,000 criminals are wounded. This compares to 300-600 justifiable
homicides by police. Yet, in most instances, civilians used a firearm to
threaten, apprehend, shoot at a criminal, or to fire a warning shot without
injuring anyone.
Based on his extensive independent survey research, Kleck estimates that each
year Americans use guns for protection from criminals more than 2.5 million
times annually. 7 U.S. Department of Justice victimization surveys show that
protective use of a gun lessens the chance that robberies, rapes, and assaults
will be successfully completed while also reducing the likelihood of victim
injury. Clearly, criminals fear armed citizens.
- 2 Rushforth, et al., "Accidental Firearm Fatalities in a Metropolitan
County, " 100 American Journal of Epidemiology 499 (1975). - 3 Rushforth, et al., "Violent Death in a Metropolitan County," 297 New
England Journal of Medicine 531, 533 (1977). - 4 Kellermann, et al., "Gun Ownership as a Risk Factor for Homicide in the
Home," New England Journal of Medicine 467 (1993). - 5 Polsby, "The False Promise of Gun Control," The Atlantic Monthly, March
1994. - 6 Wright and Rossi, Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and
Their Firearms (N.Y.: Aldine de Gruyter, 1986). - 7 Kleck, interview, Orange County Register,Sept. 19, 1993.
