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GUN
FACTS, MYTHS AND FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Advantage Firearms Education & Training provides services throughout the St. Louis Metropolitan area. All instructors are certified by the National Rifle Association, along with other nationally or internationally accredited agencies.
Here are some interesting gun facts.
- FACT:
The non-gun homicide rate for children in
the U. S. is more than twice as high as other western countries. Eight
times as many children die from non-gun violent
acts than from gun crimes.
Kids and Guns, 2000, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
CONCLUSION: The problem is violence, not guns!
- 82% of homicides to children
age 13 and under were committed without a
gun.
1997 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics
- 0.2% of all deaths for
children between ages 0-13 are from firearms; 0.6% are from motor
vehicle; 5.3% from violence(being struck in beatings or bludgeoning;
6.0% from poisoning; 42.6% from suffocation.
1997 National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Report
- In 1996 there were only
21 accidental gun deaths for children under age 15. Twice as many
children under 10 die from drowning in bathtubs.
Centers for Disease Control
- MYTH:
13 children are killed each day by guns
FACT: The statistics cited for this myth include “children” up to age 24, depending on source. Most violent crime is committed by males ages 16-24: these numbers include adult gang members dying during criminal activity!
FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1997
- FACT:
18-20 year olds commit over 23% of all gun murders. None of these
criminals are allowed to purchase a handgun due to their age under
current law!
U. S. Treasury and Justice Department Report, 1999
- FACT:
During the Clinton administration, federal prosecutions of gun-related
crimes dropped more than 44%!
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University 1992-98
- FACT:
There are more than 22,000 gun laws at the municipal, county, state
and federal level.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) estimate, 1992
CONCULSION: If gun control worked, then we should be free of crime!
- FACT:
There are more guns in the U. S. than cars (228,000,000 guns according
to 1998 FBI statistics and 107,754,000 automobiles according to the
1998 Federal Highway Administration registrations). However, you are
31 times more likely to be accidentally killed by a car than a gun
according to the National Safety Council, despite cars having been
registered and licensed for more than 100 years!
- FACT:
90% of all violent crime in the U. S. does not involve any gun or
type of firearm!
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, 1998
- FACT:
Less than 1% of all guns will ever be used in the commission of any
time of crime, much less violent crime!
FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1994
- FACT:
2/3 of the people that die each year from gunfire are criminals shooting
other criminals!
FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1994
- FACT:
The national five day waiting period under the Brady Bill had no impact
on murder or robbery, but slightly increased rape and aggravated assault
rates by a few percent. For these two crime categories, the major
effect was to delay law-abiding citizens from getting a gun for protection.
The risks were greatest for crimes against women!
Dr. John Lott, Jr, University of Chicago School of Law
- FACT:
Guns prevent an estimated 2.5 million crimes per year, or 6,849 per
day! Often, the gun is never fired and no blood is shed, even by the
criminal.
Gary Kleck, Criminologist, Florida State University
- FACT:
Every day 550 rapes, 1100 murders, and 5200 other violent crimes are
prevented by displaying a handgun. In less than 0.9% of these incidents
is the gun ever actually fired!
Gary Kleck, Criminologist, Florida State University
- FACT:
Every year, people in the United States use a gun to defend themselves
against criminals an estimated 2,500,000 times, more than 6,500 people
per day, or once every 13 seconds!
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Fall 1995
- Each year firearms are
used 65 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than
to take lives.
- FACT:
Of the 250,000,000 annual self-defense cases using guns, more than
7.7% are by women defending themselves against sexual abuse!
U. S. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration – Rape Victimization in 26 American Cities, 1979
- MYTH:
Concealed carry laws increase crime.
- FACT:
When citizens are allowed to carry concealed weapons:
- Murder rates drop 8%
- Rape rates drop 5%
- Aggravated assaults drop 7%
- Crime is significantly higher in states without right-to-carry laws
TYPE
OF CRIME - HOW MUCH HIGHER IN RESTRICTIVE STATES
(states without Concealed Carry laws)
Violent Crime ……………………81%
higher
Murder …………………………..
86% higher
Rape ……………………………
25% higher
Assault……………………………
82% higher
Robbery………………………..
105% higher
Auto Theft………………………..
60% higher
John Lott, David Mustard: This study involved county level crime statistics from all 3,054 counties in the U.S. from 1977 through 1992. During this time, ten states adopted right-to-carry laws. It is estimated that if all states had adopted right-to-carry laws, in 1992 the U.S. would have avoided 1,400 murders, 4,200 rapes, 12,000 robberies, 60,000 aggravated assaults- and would have saved over $5,000,000,000 in victim expenses.
- FACT:
92.7% of law enforcement officials believe that citizens should be able
to purchase firearms for self-defense and sporting purposes.
National Association of Chiefs of Police, 1999 Survey
- MYTH:
Police are our protection, and people don't need guns.
- FACT:
The courts have consistently ruled that the police do not have an obligation
to protect individuals, nor the ability.
In Warren v. District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Dept., 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. App. 1981), the court stated: 'Courts have without exception concluded that when a municipality or other governmental entity undertakes to furnish police services, it assumes a duty only to the public at large and not to individual members of the community.'
- FACT:
After Canada's 1977 gun controls prohibited handgun possession for self
defense, the "breaking and entering" crime rate rose 25%,
surpassing the U.S. rate.
Pat Mayhew, Residential Burglary: A Comparison of the United States, Canada and England and Wales (Nat'l Inst. Of Just., Wash., D.C., 1987)
- MYTH:
Japan has strict gun control and a less violent society.
- FACT:
In Japan, the murder rate is about 1 per 100,000. In the U.S., there
are about 3.2 murders per 100,000 each year by weapons other than firearms.
United Nations data
CONSULSION: Therefore, if all of the firearms in the U.S. could magically be eliminated, we would still have three times the murder rate of Japan.
Criminals Fear Armed Citizens more than the Police and related legislation
In a survey of criminals (FELONS IN PRISON), Professors James D. Wright and Peter Rossi of the Social and Demographic Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts conducted a study in 1982 and 1983 paid for by the U.S. Department of Justice. (Professor Rossi was a former President of the American Sociological Association.) The researchers interviewed 1,874 imprisoned felons in ten states.
- 88% of the criminals surveyed by Wright and Rossi agreed with the statement that, “A criminal who wants a handgun is going to get one.” (these felons are not obeying the gun laws and the anti gun politicians cannot figure this out!)
- 81% of interviewees agreed that a “smart criminal” will try to determine if a potential victim is armed.
- 74% indicated that burglars avoided occupied dwellings, because of fear of being shot.
- 57% said that most criminals feared armed citizens more than the police.
- 40% of the felons said that they had been deterred from committing a particular crime, because they believed that the potential victim was armed.
- 57% of the felons who had used guns themselves said that they had encountered potential victims who were armed.
- 34% of the criminal respondents said that they had been scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed citizen.
Based on this government-funded research by Wright and Rossi, it would appear to a reasonable and prudent man that armed citizens do have a deterrent effect on crime.
It has been said that men have but two ways of dealing with each other; reason or force. Also it has been said that God made man but Sam Colt made men equal. Given those two statements being true, it makes you wonder why some politicians are so intent on preventing free citizens from defending themselves. Those people may be tired of trying to reason with us and would prefer to force their beliefs on us.
"Men by their constitutions
are naturally divided into two parties: 1) Those who fear and distrust
the people, and 2) Those who identify themselves with the people, have
confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe
. . . depository of the public interest." -- Thomas Jefferson
