Guns Are Rarely Used in Self-Defense

[SecularMotion]

“If you are fearful, arm yourself.”

That was Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader’s advice to Ohio residents in the wake of a series of “execution”-style killings that left eight members of a family dead at four different homes in Southern Ohio last week. Attorney General Mike DeWine described the shootings as “a sophisticated operation” amidst news reports that marijuana “grow operations” were found at three of the four homes, although it’s not known whether the murders were linked to the drug activities. The shooting was the 23rd mass shooting (three victims or more as defined by federal law) so far this year.

Sheriff Reader’s advice may warm the cold heart of the National Rifle Association and its financial partners in the gun industry which claim that guns are used up to 2.5 million times a year in self-defense. Yet the truth is that guns are rarely used to stop crimes or kill criminals.

According to the latest federal data available, as detailed in Firearm Justifiable Homicides and Non-Fatal Self-Defense Gun Use, a report issued last week by my organization, the Violence Policy Center, private citizens use guns to harm themselves or others far more often than to kill in self-defense.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-sugarmann/guns-are-rarely-used-in-s_b_9774008.html