Aug 20th 2011, 22:30:05
Yes, the numbers for self-defense are all guesses -- there is no reliable statistic being collected. With many instances never even being reported. That is why I cited CBS News -- a decidedly liberal source with a general anti-gun bias. I could get into the NRA database and find lots of specific numbers. There was one actual study done by a rather large sample size survey where the authors started with a hypothesis to prove the danger of personal gun ownership and instead discovered a rather large number of self-defense uses. While I found the methodology pretty fair it is reflexively rejected by mainstream media - like CBS News. So I went with CBS to avoid the controversy of the source and highlight the reality that a lot of people really do use personal firearms for self-defense.