{"id":72419,"date":"2021-09-22T17:43:24","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T22:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=72419"},"modified":"2021-09-22T17:50:44","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T22:50:44","slug":"72419","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=72419","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Observation O’ The Day
\nAnother reason may just be the concentration of ownership of major media in the hands of a few, very wealthy, people. Wealthy people have feared armed commoners for most of recorded history, and especially since the invention of reliable, concealable firearms, so publication of news likely to encourage gun ownership is discouraged.<\/p>\n

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There Are Far More Defensive Gun Uses Than Murders in America. Here’s Why You Rarely Hear of Them.<\/a><\/p>\n

While Americans know that guns take many innocent lives every year, many don\u2019t know that firearms also save them.<\/p>\n

On May 15, an attacker at an apartment complex in\u00a0Fort Smith, Ark.<\/a>, fatally shot a woman and then fired 93 rounds at other people before a man killed him with a bolt-action rifle. Police said he \u201clikely saved a number of lives in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

On June 30,\u00a0a 12-year-old Louisiana boy used a hunting rifle<\/a>\u00a0to stop an armed burglar who was threatening his mother\u2019s life during a home invasion.<\/p>\n

On July 4<\/a>, a Chicago gunman shot into a crowd of people, killing one and wounding two others before a concealed handgun permit holder shot and wounded the attacker. Police praised him for stepping in.<\/p>\n

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According to academic estimates, defensive gun uses \u2014 including when guns are simply shown to deter a crime \u2014 are four to five times more common than gun crimes.<\/div>\n
Al Hartmann\/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP<\/div>\n
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These are just a few of the nearly\u00a01,000 instances reported by the media so far this year in which gun owners have stopped mass shootings and other murderous acts, saving countless lives. And crime experts say such high-profile cases represent only a small fraction of the instances in which guns are used defensively. But the data are unclear, for a number of reasons, and this has political ramifications because it seems to undercut the claims of gun rights advocates that they need to possess firearms for personal protection — an issue\u00a0now before the Supreme Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Americans who look only at the daily headlines would be surprised to learn that, according to academic estimates, defensive gun uses \u2014 including instances when guns are simply shown to deter a crime \u2014 are four to five times more common than gun crimes, and far more frequent than the\u00a0fewer than 20,000 murders<\/a>\u00a0each year, with or without a gun. But even when they prevent mass public shootings, defensive uses rarely get national news coverage. Those living in major news markets such as New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles are unlikely to hear of such stories.<\/p>\n

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As of Aug. 10, America\u2019s five largest newspapers \u2014 the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal \u2014 have published a combined total of 10 news stories this year reporting a civilian\u00a0 using a gun to successfully stop a crime, according to a search of the Nexis database of news stories. By contrast, those same newspapers had a total of 1,743 news stories containing the keywords \u201cmurder\u201d or \u201cmurdered\u201d or \u201cmurders\u201d and \u201cgunfire,\u201d \u201cshot,\u201d or \u201cshots.\u201d Including articles with the word \u201cwounded,\u201d the total rises to 2,764.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody who has done their homework on defensive gun use could possibly believe reading news articles accurately captures anything but an infinitesimal share of defensive gun uses,\u201d Tomislav Kovandzic, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas, told RealClearInvestigations. \u201cThe only way to measure defensive gun uses is with surveys. While there is no such thing as a perfect measure of anything, the fact that they consistently show large numbers of defensive gun uses can\u2019t be ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s National Crime Victimization Survey indicates that around 100,000 defensive gun uses occur each year — an estimate that, though it may seem like a lot, is actually much lower than\u00a017 other surveys<\/a>. They find between 760,000 defensive handgun uses and 3.6 million defensive uses of any type of gun per year, with an average of about 2 million.<\/p>\n

The difference between these surveys arises from the screening questions. The National Crime Victimization Survey first asks a person if they have been a victim of a crime. Only respondents who answer \u201cyes\u201d are asked if they have ever used a gun defensively.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the other surveys screen respondents by asking if they have been threatened with violence. That produces more self-acknowledged defensive gun users, since someone who successfully brandished a gun is less likely to self-characterize as a crime victim.\u00a0Survey data<\/a>\u00a0indicate that in 95% of cases when people use guns defensively, they merely show the gun to make the criminal back off. Such defensive gun uses rarely make the news, though a few do.<\/p>\n

In March, a man police described as \u201carmed and dangerous\u201d attempted to rob a home\u00a0in Smith County, Texas<\/a>. The homeowner pulled a gun and the intruder “fled away on foot.\u201d The criminal had shot a woman the night before and had previous \u201coutstanding warrants for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and felon in possession of a firearm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later that same month,\u00a0in Joplin, Missouri<\/a>, a husband choked his wife during an argument. The wife was able to grab a gun to protect herself. The man fled the house and drove away before cops caught up with him.<\/p>\n

In May, in\u00a0Ogden, Utah<\/a>, a stranger grabbed an 11-year-old girl on a school playground. An armed teacher observed this from inside the school, ran outside and confronted the suspect, giving the girl the chance to pull away from the attacker. The teacher held the man at gunpoint until police were able to arrive.<\/p>\n

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\"Chaney44145\/Wikimedia\"<\/div>\n
Leading news outfits rely on the Gun Violence Archive to track firearm use. The GVA, however, relies primarily on news reports, creating literally an unvirtuous circle. This media coverage focuses on the most extreme cases, which academic research suggests is actually a minority of gun uses.<\/div>\n
Chaney44145\/Wikimedia<\/div>\n
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Defensive gun uses don’t loom large as a public concern not only because they tend not to feature dead bodies or blood. They are also underplayed because of a distorting feedback loop involving news organizations. Many leading outfits use data from the Gun Violence Archive to track firearm use. The GVA, however, relies primarily on news reports, creating literally an unvirtuous circle. This media coverage focuses on the most extreme cases, which academic research suggests is actually a minority of gun uses.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedia stories cannot be trusted to accurately reflect the number or type of defensive gun uses that actually occur,\u201d Professor Gary Mauser of Canada\u2019s Simon Fraser University told RCI. Mauser has conducted national surveys on defensive gun use. \u201cNational surveys find that firearms are rarely fired when used to stop a violent attack,” he said. “Such cases are unlikely to be reported to the police, and even less likely to found in media stories. Relying upon media stories would greatly underestimate the true number of defensive gun uses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Bryant, executive director of the Gun Violence Archive, defends the reliance on media accounts and discounts the argument that media disproportionately cover the most violent cases. \u201cI don\u2019t think it is a newsworthy issue. \u2026 [T]oo many media really like the feel good stories of homeowner standing up to home invader,\u201d Bryant wrote to RCI. \u201cEven better if it was a granny doing it. They don\u2019t just go with the \u2018if it bleeds \u2026\u2019 newsworthiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others disagree. Experts say that killings are usually more newsworthy than woundings, and woundings more notable than confrontations defused simply by someone brandishing a gun.<\/p>\n

RealClearInvestigations examined Gun Violence Archive data from Jan. 1 to Aug. 10 of this year, and found 774 defensive gun uses, fully 85 percent involving people shot: 43% resulting in death and 42% percent in wounding. Less than 4% of cases involved no shots fired.<\/p>\n

Experts interviewed by RCI said this coverage makes defensive gun uses appear as if they end in fatalities or woundings at much higher rates than they actually do. (In addition, many major outlets focus on instances where defensive gun uses go wrong, which may discourage people from defending\u00a0themselves<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

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Compounding the challenge of quantifying defensive gun uses: Most police departments do not compile data on them.<\/div>\n
Tima Miroshnichenko<\/div>\n
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Compounding the challenge, most police departments do not compile data on defensive gun use. One exception is the Houston Police Department. Jodi Silva, a spokesperson for the department, told RCI it has a rule to release a press statement whenever someone has been killed or wounded in a shooting. No other department does that. This helps explain why two-thirds of defensive gun uses compiled by the GVA come from Houston, with the rest found in news stories from elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Mauser notes another anomaly: Police\u00a0departments<\/a>\u00a0are only reporting instances when shots are fired. \u201cThat means they are certainly missing most defensive gun use cases,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Texas has the most news stories on defensive gun uses, with over 14% of all the cases. That isn\u2019t surprising given that it\u2019s the most populous state with less restrictive concealed-carry laws. Just three states \u2013 Texas, Florida, and Ohio \u2013 accounted for over 26% of all the defensive gun use news stories.<\/p>\n

There are still other problems with relying on news stories: They are typically written soon after the fact — before all the facts are clear. \u201cDefensive gun uses in public usually result in an arrest, and rarely are the police certain enough about what happened,\u201d Moody told RCI. \u201cWhen police or courts later drop the charges, a follow-up news story or a report on the police blotter won\u2019t cover those developments \u2014 so relying on news stories can get some genuine defensive gun uses classified as crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

RCI found a number of cases that fit this pattern. On Sept. 9, a man was pulling into a Houston gas station when an armed robber stopped his car and demanded his belongings. The police arrested the driver while they were investigating the case, but they later found him blameless: \u201cHe is being very cooperative with the investigation and his story matches with witness statements<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gun Violence Archive lists some incidents as purely criminal acts of violence when they really entailed defensive gun uses. Here are a few:<\/p>\n