This special publication uses an extensive collection of news
reports from over an eight-year period to survey the circumstances
and outcomes of defensive gun uses in America. Federal and state
lawmakers often oppose repealing or amending laws governing the
ownership or carrying of guns. That opposition is often based on
assumptions that the average citizen is incapable of successfully
employing a gun in self-defense or that possession of a gun in
public will tempt people to violence in contentious situations.
Those assumptions, illustrated in this report, are false. Such
cases are an exceedingly small minority of gun uses by otherwise
law-abiding citizens and a great number of tragedies-murders,
rapes, assaults, robberies-have been thwarted by self-defense gun
uses. The vast majority of gun owners are ethical and competent -
and thousands of crimes are prevented each year by ordinary
citizens with guns.
This report's analysis begins with an overview of the academic
studies that have tried to estimate the frequency of defensive gun
uses. It then examines recent legal issues and trends surrounding
the law of self defense, and then explores the manner and
circumstances in which people use guns against criminals.
This paper also examines instances of gun use in self-defense in
order to provide a better understanding of their character. When
ordinary Americans use guns in self defense, what is the nature of
that use? How frequently do these events occur and what are the
consequences? Finally, a lengthy Appendix provides scores of
documented examples in which ordinary people have used guns to
defend themselves.
