Forbes has an excellent article on the Myths of the Gun Control Lobby. Finally a reporter has started calling out the other side on the bullshit:
Caroline Brewer of the anti-gun Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has reported that “The research we’ve seen indicates fewer and fewer people owning more and more guns.†Yet one can only wonder where they are getting that information. In reality, public support for personal gun ownership is growing.
I can tell you where they are getting that information — they are pulling it out of a place most decidedly devoid of sunlight. That said, they don’t get everything correct:
A National Crime Victimization Study (NCVS) which asked victims if they had used a gun in self-defense found that about 108,000 each year had done so. A big problem with the NCVS line of survey reasoning, however, is that it only includes those uses where a citizen kills a criminal, not when one is only wounded, is held by the intended victim until police arrive, or when brandishing a gun caused a criminal to flee.
NCVS does count those. The issue many had with NCVS survey method is they did not get to questions about defensive gun use unless the person reported themselves as a victim of crime first. Thus it’s believed NCVS undercounts DGUs. It will be greatly disappointing to the writer of the Propiganda Professor, a darling of our opponents, that the serious academic studies on DGUs, some by our own government, show the number to be in the hundreds of thousands on the low end, despite what he and his friends in the gun control movement might want to imagine.
I believe a large number of DGUs do go unreported. A friend of mine had a DGU in Philadelphia, but didn’t fire. As soon as he drew on his attackers, they fled. He called 911, who’s attitude was, if there wasn’t someone bleeding out on the sidewalk, it wasn’t important enough to warrant  further attention. I know this is anecdotal, but I think there are many cases like this. How many do you know of, or have directly experienced?
I have used a gun in defense of my home, no shots fired, and it was not officially reported to the police. The nutshell version: paroled rapist and burglar tried to come over my wall at 1am. I heard a noise, checked my surveillance cameras, went outside Glock 19 in hand. He left, then came back a few minutes later to try to go over another gate while I was on the phone with the cops. I went outside, cell phone in one hand, Glock in the other, and drew a bead. He ran away, cops came about an hour later. I did not tell dispatch I was armed. I showed the cops video on my laptop of the very sketchy looking guy trying to climb our gate and once they realized I was a good citizen and not a nut, the male cop got me to admit I had been armed, to which he responded I would have been crazy to confront a burglar at 1am in my pajamas otherwise. He warned me of the repercussions in our town (L.A.) of shooting even a bona fide bad guy. The guy was arrested days later at the local homeless camp indentified by my video for a parole violation – he had been the source of a number of problems in my neighborhood.
After this event, my wife and I soon took numerous training classes and have since become weekly competitive shooters in IDPA, USPSA, and Steel Challenge, joined the NRA, became RSOs, started reloading, and are members of 3 private shooting clubs.
This incident was probably the single most exciting moment in my life since I lost my virginity.
I dont know if this would be considered DGU or not, but where I used to live there was three houses on one common driveway. Parking for all three houses was at the end of the driveway. I saw a shadow go by my window one late afternoon and investigated. Armed of course as I knew both of my neighbors were at work. When I confronted the stranger, he stepped towards me. I stepped back and placed my hand on the but of my P13 which was concealed under my shirt. He emmediatly backed off and headed down the driveway never to be seen again.
I have a friend who was accosted by a few local teens with knives. He pulled his gun, they ran away. He then called 911 and they said they were glad he was OK, and hung up.
I can say the same. When I was in a similar situation in January of this year, I called the police to report it and their attitude was basically, “Thanks for the info, we’ll be aware.”
There have been 13(?) survey studies over two decades, including as you note one by the DOJ, that show a range of, I think, 700K to a high of 4.something mil. Kleck, the original, is I think on the high end but not the highest, which makes the Anti’s ad hominem denunciations of him in particular on the subject a little laughable.
The DOJ is at, again as I recall, 2.2 mil and the next lowest to the 700K is in the low 1.something millions.
Anyone with a Criminology background learns the reporting weaknesses in the NCVS in 101, and that you need multiple study types to even come close to accuracy on any crime numbers outside of homicide and car theft.
But honesty is such a lonely word for the majority of the MSM and the Anti’s.