How are guns being
used by citizens
in America each year?
= homicide + accident + suicide
= self defense
Every year, guns are used over 80x more often to protect a life than to take one!*
270 Million
Approx. # of civilian firearms in America
200,000
Times a year women use a gun to defend against SEXUAL ABUSE
3/5
polled felons say they won’t mess with an armed victim
Gun Ownership
Vs Crime
an international perspective
Highest Gun
Ownership Rate
per 100 residents
Highest Intentional
Homicide Rate
per 100,000 residents
88.8
USA
54.8
YEMEN
45.7
Switzerland
45.3
Finland
91.6
Honduras
69.2
El Salvador
56.9
Côte d'Ivoire
52.2
Jamaica
A recent study published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy concluded that there is a negative correlation between gun ownership and violent crime in countries internationally (more guns = less crime).
Nations with strict gun control laws have substantially higher murder rates than those who do not in general. In fact, the 9 European nations with the lowest gun ownership rate have a combined murder rate 3x that of the 9 European nations with the highest gun ownership rate!
UNITED KINGDOM
CASE STUDY
“Most violent country in EU”
With just one exception, every public mass shooting in the USA since 1950 has taken place where citizens are banned from carrying guns. Despite strict gun regulations, Europe has had 3 of the worst 6 school shootings.
Police
794,300
total police officers
11%
error rate
14.3
avg. deaths of a shooting
rampage stopped by police
606
criminals killed each year
Armed Citizen
80,000,000
gun owning citizens
2%
error rate
2.3
avg. deaths of a shooting
rampage stopped by a citizen
1,527
criminals killed each year
In 1982, Kennesaw, Georgia passed a law requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in the house. The residential burglary rate subsequently dropped 89% in Kennesaw, compared to just 10.4% drop in Georgia as a whole.
Today, the violent crime rate in Kennesaw is still 85% lower than Georgia's or the national average.