In many discussions, there comes a point at which someone rejects not only interpretations based on judgements but facts as well. The facts about guns in the United States are mixed, leaving both sides the opportunity to have valid positions derived from their values–freedom or safety–without being compelled to choose one answer or another to be intellectually honest. For example, some 30,000 Americans die each year from gunshots, while something like 80,000 suffer non-fatal injuries. At the same time, hundred of thousands use firearms to defend their lives annually.When describing defensive gun uses, the gun-rights fanatics love to exaggerate in two ways. First they inflate the actual count, then they call that exaggerated count, uses of "firearms to defend their lives."
The truth is, these estimates include shootings at snakes and coyotes. They include innumerable incidents of minor threats that in no way were life threatening. They also include many cases of property crime being thwarted in which no person was in danger at all.
That last link to a Slate dot com article is interesting. Here's a quote:
“Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year … in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008,” says the report.
There are many estimates that come in under that 500,000 figure. Greg knows this, and in fact, has quoted them himself. But in that typical exaggerating way of his, he selected this misleading article to make his point.
I'm afraid old Greg Camp hasn't changed much in these months since he disappeared from this blog. Some believe he's been commenting anonymously, but I'd like to take this opportunity to officially invite him back. Arguing with Greg never fails to make gun control look good.
