“Good” use: 9, “Bad” use: 6,094
The National Rifle Association (NRA) website has an ongoing feature called the Armed Citizen. The feature reports stories of individuals successfully using guns either at home, on the street, or in their place of business to thwart intruders, robbers, or burglars. Gun-rights advocates call them “defensive gun uses” or “DGU’s.” I call them “good” uses of a gun.
During the month of February, the Armed Citizen reported nine such DGU’s. The first one was dated February 1, 2014; the last one was dated February 22, 2014 -- a period of 22 days. You can find the feature here: www.nraila.org/gun-laws/armed-citizen.aspx.
However, not mentioned in the Armed Citizen was that during the same 22-day period, based on average numbers (source: www.bradycampaign.org), 1,848 Americans were killed by a gun (1,122 by suicide) and another 4,246 were wounded by one (220 by attempted suicide). Those number represent what I call “bad” uses of a gun. To put it another way, for each single “good” use of a gun as recorded in the Armed Citizen during those 22 days, there were 677 “bad” uses of a gun.
Granted, the NRA might not have reported or been aware of all the confirmed DGU’s that occurred during that 22-day period. Indeed, gun-rights advocates often point to studies that show as many as 2-1/2 million DGU’s each year. That’s over 200,000 a month. Yet the best the Armed Citizen could document throughout the entire month of February was … nine?
As I said last month in this report: Something doesn’t smell right.
Here’s another thing I said last month: “So here’s my suggestion to the millions of gun-rights advocates: If you want Americans to believe there are 200,000 defensive gun uses each month, you need to start documenting them in the Armed Citizen. Start writing and perhaps those numbers will smell a lot better next month when I add them up.”
Well, it seems the numbers did get better -- they went from seven last month to nine this month.
Something still doesn’t smell right.
Please help reduce this carnage that goes on day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. Call, write, email, or FAX your representatives in Washington, D.C. and tell them to support common sense gun control. Do it today. And do it again next week. And do it again every week after that until they get the message.
You’ll find contact information here:
www.contactingthecongress.org
Gun Facts
Every year in the U.S.A., on average: *
-- Over 18,000 people kill themselves with a gun (51 each day)
-- Almost 12,000 people are murdered by a gun (32 each day)
-- Almost 600 people are accidentally shot and killed by a gun (1 each day)
-- Over 51,000 people are shot and wounded in an attack involving a gun (140 each day)
-- Over 16,000 people are accidentally shot and wounded by a gun (43 each day)
-- Almost 4,000 people are wounded attempting to kill themselves with a gun (10 each day).
Total killed by guns each year: Over 30,000 (84 each day)
Total wounded by guns each year: Over 70,000 (193 each day)
Total number of Americans either killed or wounded by guns each year: Over 100,000 (277 each day)
* Brady Campaign (gun deaths from police intervention not included here)