Myth: Private ownership of guns
is not effective in preventing crime.

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 a day, or once every 13 seconds.2 Of these instances, 15.6% of the people using a firearm defensively stated that they "almost certainly" saved their lives by doing so.

Firearms are used 60 times more often to protect lives than to take lives.

Fact: In 83.5% (2,087,500) of these successful gun defenses, the attacker either threatened or used force first, proving that guns are very well suited for self-defense.

Fact: Of the 2,500,000 times citizens use guns to defend themselves, 92% merely brandish their gun or fire a warning shot to scare off their attackers.

Fact: Less than 8% of the time does a citizen wound his or her attacker, and in less than one in a thousand instances is the attacker killed.3

Fact: For every accidental death, suicide or homicide with a firearm, 10 lives are saved through defensive use.

Fact: When using guns in self-defense4:
- 83% of robbery victims were not injured
- 88% of assault victims were not hurt
- 76% of all self-defense use of guns never involve firing a single shot

Fact: After the implementation of Canada's 1977 gun controls prohibiting handgun possession for protection, the "breaking and entering” crime rate rose 25%, surpassing the American rate.5


Myth: Only police should have guns.

Fact: "...most criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police."6

Fact: 11% of police shootings kill an innocent person - about 2% of shootings by citizens kill an innocent person.7

Fact: Seems the police have trouble keeping them. Hundreds of firearms are missing from the FBI and 449 of them have been involved in crimes.8

Fact: Anyone who saw the helplessness of the L.A. Police Department during the 1992 King Riots knows that they need guns to defend themselves.





Myth: You are more likely to be injured or killed
using a gun for self-defense.

Fact: You are far more likely to survive a violent assault if you defend yourself with a gun. In episodes where a robbery victim was injured, the injury/defense rates were:9
Resisting with a gun 6%
Did nothing at all 25%
Resisted with a knife 40%
Non-violent resistance 45%