Why are so many people against having guns for protection? Do you even know the statistics of people owning guns for protection? Let me give you some facts about gun ownership and even some information from police departments in the United States about gun control.
A Florida State criminologist did a study on how often (in America) a gun is used for protection in a year. He came up with 800,000 to 2,500,000 times in one year alone. This is used in self defense for protection and the majority of these uses are from handguns and no shots are ever fired.
The National Institute of Justice did a survey of criminals and over 38% of them said they decided against doing a particular crime due to fear of that the victim could have a firearm. This tells me that criminals are thinking about the citizens right to protect themselves. It goes back to the old question. If you were a criminal looking to break into a house, would you break into the house that a sign that said they support gun control or the one that says they don't support gun control? That answer is pretty damn obvious.
Many of you are going to say something along the lines of, "Well Riot, America has more violent crimes than many other nations and it is because of guns." You would be right, because that is a fact of living in America and whether or not the last part is correct is really up for interuptation. However, the telling statistic is the rate of burglary of occupied residences. America has a
lower rate than those nations that have gun control laws. I can think of a good reason why Americans don't get robbed when they are home and it probably has to do something with 38% of criminals not wanting to do a crime out of fear of a firearm by the victim.
There are 35,000 gun deaths in a year in America. That is a very large number (too large) and it shouldn't be overlooked. With that said, for everyone one death over 65 lives are protected by civilian owned firearms. It breaks down to roughly five lives saved per minute. They estimate that over 500,000 of those uses a year actually saved atleast one life. You can't tell me that isn't worth it.
The majority of homicides come from inner cities and those aren't because of gun ownerships. Most of the deaths have to deal with drug trafficking and poverty. If you take away the inner cities, which I admit is a useless stat, then America's homicide rates are lower than most industrial nations. The reason why 35,000 people die in America via firearm isn't because of the right to bare arms but rather the addiction and poverty level of the kids and families in the inner city. If you take away guns from the rest of the country the number wouldn't go down. In fact, there would be even more violent crimes because those 2,500,000 times that gun protection did work would now be lost due to the gun control laws.
The states with the loose gun control laws have the lowest homicide rates in the country but those that have stricter laws have the highest? It is illegal for teenagers to buy guns yet black teenagers are the ones with the highest homicide rate. "The US group for whom legal gun ownership has the highest prevalence, middle-aged white men, has a homicide rate of less than 7 per 100,000 - about half of the US average." So the ones who do own the guns aren't the ones getting killed! It's the ones who are already banned from getting them in the first place. By placing a ban on guns you aren't taking it out of the hands of the teenagers or the gangbangers, you are taking it out of the hands of those who actually use it for protection.
The National Safety Council says accidental gun accidents are at an all time low (200 accidents per year) and have been falling steadily. This pretty much debunks the myth that having a gun is begging for an accident to happen.
The suicide issue is an interesting one. For those places that have gun control their suicide rate via firearm is actually less than the places that don't. This is the statistic I am given when people are talking about how bad gun ownership is. What they don't look at is that the actual suicide rate doesn't go down, it stays the same. The difference is in those places where they can't get guns they end up killing themselves via auto exhust, hanging, leaping or more. They find a way to kill themselves regardless.
The bottom line is this: having a gun for protection works. It saves lives every year in America. There are statistics to back it up. The vast majority of gun deaths are due to drugs or poverty and take place in the inner city. The telling statistic for me is this:
for every one life lost by firearm there are 65 saved by one.
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That sucks. Mainly, I think it's a difference of cultures. In your case, having firearms in America is a good thing because it's used for protection more than for murder, despite the high numbers on both ends. But it's a culture that they surround themselves in.
