The Odds of Dying | LiveScience
For the average citizen in the United States, given that many don't live near the coast, .... Assault by Firearm. 1-in-325. Fire or Smoke. 1-in-1116 ...
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Odds of Death Due to Injury in the US
The most common causes of death due to injury in the United States ... Assault. 16765. 16421. 214. Intentional self-harm by firearm ...
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Guns Save Lives

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Opinion Editorial
By Linda Gorman
In a Letter-to-the-Editor in the September 17-19 issue of the Colorado Daily, Mr. Peter Aretin doubted the claim that U.S. citizens use their guns to drive off criminals 2.5 million times a year. He wanted to know where that number came from and what that startling statistic [is] supposed to meanIs there a great conspiracy to suppress all record of all this gunplay by innocent persons, or is it all just going unreported to the police? he asked.

As Mr. Aretin recognized, such a large number of defensive gun uses poses a problem for gun control activists. When guns are widely used for self-defense, legislation that makes using them more difficult, like safe storage, trigger locks, and outright bans, just condemns more people to being beaten, robbed, raped, and murdered. This happened in Britain, where rates of violent crime, gun robbery and murder skyrocketed after handguns were banned and registered owners were required to surrender their weapons. By 1995, English crime victimization rates had surpassed those in the United States.

Anecdotes from daily newspapers leave no doubt that defensive gun use occurs. In 1996, for example, the Baltimore Sun reported that police, without legal authority, confiscated 83-year-old James Edward Scotts .22-caliber rifle after he shot and wounded an intruder in the backyard of his West Baltimore home. Less than a year later, he was strangled by a burglar. A neighbor said that if he had had the gun he would not have been killed. The neighbor, also apparently familiar with the realities of life in West Baltimore, refused to give his name fearing retribution from the attacker.[i]

In most cases of defensive use, criminals run away when their victims have a gun. No shots are fired, no crime is committed, and police may not be notified. Police are even less likely to be involved in the many high crime areas where guns are illegal. On May 22, 1997, the Chicago Tribune reported that Josie Cash used her gun to scare off muggers trying to steal her pizza delivery money. She reported the incident to the police. They charged her with a felony for carrying a concealed weapon.

The muggers ran off because criminals, like everyone else, prefer to make their living without getting shot. When James D. Wright and Peter Rossi surveyed convicted felons,[ii] they found that in the United States, burglars feared armed victims more than they feared the police. Unsurprisingly, the hot burglary rate in the U.S., the fraction of burglaries committed while a resident is home, is just 13%. In Canada and Britain, countries that disarm the law abiding, the hot burglary rate is almost 50%.

In 1995, Gary Kleck and Mark Gertz published the results of the first anonymous population survey specifically designed to measure the incidence of defensive gun use against humans in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.[iii] The survey queried a large, randomly selected, sample of people about defensive gun use. People who reported using a gun to defend themselves against another person were asked a follow-up series of questions designed to make it difficult to make up incidents. The results produced estimates of 2.3 to 2.5 million defensive uses a year. Despite the fact that the survey was anonymous, its interviewers felt that a nu

 

[quote]ORIGINAL: SpaceRider

[align=center] [/align][align=center][:-][/align][align=center]GP `Dave,[/align][align=center]I'm just posting what I found doing research from the web.[/align][align=center]Did I flunk the course ? LOL [/align][align=center]I hope that you & your friends stay lucky and never[/align][align=center]have to be confronted by any weapons.[/align][align=center]I still think driving on todays roads are the most dangerous.[/align][align=center]Below are some sources I used.[/align][align=center]Wish you and the readers of this post a `Happy[/align][align=center]and Good Luck in `Life[/align][align=center][/align]The Odds of Dying | LiveScience
For the average citizen in the United States, given that many don't live near the coast, .... Assault by Firearm. 1-in-325. Fire or Smoke. 1-in-1116 ...
www.livescience.com/environment/050106_odds_of_d... - 55k - Similar pages
http://www.livescience.com/environme..._of_dying.html
Odds of Death Due to Injury in the US
The most common causes of death due to injury in the United States ... Assault. 16765. 16421. 214. Intentional self-harm by firearm ...
danger.mongabay.com/injury_odds.htm - 50k - [URL=http://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/search?invocationType=similarPages.search&quer y=related%3Adanger.mongabay.com%2Finjury_odds.htm& amp;clickedItemPa

 

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[align=center]Guns Save Lives
by Jennifer Freeman[/align]



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Many cities and states with strict gun-control legislation claim that such laws are necessary for public safety. Gun rights activists have pointed out time and again that criminals, by their very definition, do not obey the law. And that anti-gun laws only serve to prevent law abiding citizens from defending themselves in life threatening situations.
The statistics consistently support the argument of gun right activists. Areas with the strictest gun control laws have the highest crime rates in the nation. Washington DC, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago are some of the most notorious examples. Lawmakers refuse to acknowledge this fact, however, and continue to repeat their already disproven argument about banning guns to keep society safe.
The aspect of "reasonableness" also comes into play when dealing with anti-gun legislators. Lawmakers with the hidden agenda of a total and complete gun ban think that it is "reasonable" to restrict law abiding citizens from defending their property. They think it is "reasonable" to deny law abiding citizens the ability to carry concealed firearms on their person or in their vehicle. People who live in unsafe neighborboods or who work nights are instructed to move or change jobs as an alternative to self defense.
Poor people, usually minorities, who live in neighborhoods overrun by criminal drug gangs live every day in fear. These criminals activities occur not only at night but all throughout the day as well. Life threatening violence can begin within a split second and be over before the call to 911 is even complete. Obviously the mere existence of a police force is not enough to prevent such crimes. Yet lawmakers continue to ignore the facts content with their anti-gun mantra leaving people in at-risk neighborhoods without the ability to legally fend for themselves. The lack of compassion from anti-gun legislators is stunning to say the least.
Violent crime is not limited to bad neighborhoods, however. It can occur in any neighborhood, at the mall, and even at church. But, as long as people continue to vote for the very people who wish to disarm them, the madness will continue.

Jennifer Freeman is Executive Director and co-founder of Liberty Belles, a grass-roots organization dedicated to restoring and preserving the Second Amendment.
http://www.libertybelles.org
jennifer@libertybelles.org

 

I think the odds of being assulted by a firearm is VERY rare. BUT, the odds of being assulted by someone USING a firearm is probably alot more common...

 

 

Space,

I remember learning in high school that the nation of Switzerland doesn't have an army.

I also vaguely remember that every man over 18 has to own an automatic weapon in case they are called to defend their borders.

I also vaguely remember that Switzerlandat one time hadthe lowest per capita murder rate by firearm than any other nation in the world.

I remember learning the Washington DC, which until recently banned all weapons, but for whatever reason, they are always in the top cities of murders by guns.

I may someday go back and research these factoids again, but I like to remember them this way. Hopefully not urban legends.

Shalom