A reader who refers to himself as \u201ca common sense liberal\u201d writes in:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn view of the agonized calls for increased restrictions on firearm ownership resurrected by the recent shooting in Arizona, could you write a column with meaningful statistics on death and injury nationwide prevented by the civilian ownership of firearms?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of incidents described in the \u2018Armed Citizen\u2019 column in the NRA\u2019s \u2018American Rifleman\u2019 publication; the reluctance of the national media to acknowledge the same type of occurrences; and my estimation of incidents not reported lead me to believe that a great deal of good has occurred because of the private ownership of firearms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI personally have experienced two instances, not reported, where the presence of a handgun on my behalf has been instrumental in preventing a very likely attack. …<\/p>\n
\u201cI think (your readers) might be influenced to re-examine their point of view regarding firearm ownership if they were exposed to statistics in its favor.\u201d<\/p>\n
My correspondent\u2019s point is well taken.<\/p>\n
When some idiot drives up on the sidewalk and kills three people with his Chevy, no one demands \u201cChevy control\u201d with waiting periods, background checks, etc.<\/p>\n
When we point this out, the hoplophobes shriek: \u201cChevys have a legitimate use! Guns have no use except for killing.\u201d<\/p>\n
We reply, \u201cActually, handguns are used millions of times per year in self-defense, without even being fired. When the potential rapist or assailant becomes aware his intended victim has a handgun, he goes away. There\u2019s no police report. Most gun uses don\u2019t involve killing. They don\u2019t even involve discharging a round. (See \u201cBitches with guns,\u201d www.lizmichael.com\/bitches.htm<\/a>.) And that\u2019s before we even talk about the considerable benefit of having a populace that knows how to shoot when war breaks out.<\/p>\n \u201cIf guns have \u2018no use but killing,\u2019 does that mean every time a cop straps on his duty pistol he\u2019s hoping he gets to kill someone with it? Don\u2019t most culprits allow themselves to be arrested without making the cop draw his gun?\u201d<\/p>\n The other side stands silent for a minute, then returns to yammering another memorized talking point.<\/p>\n Its hard to quantify \u201cdefensive gun uses\u201d precisely because most don\u2019t show up on \u201ccountable\u201d police reports.<\/p>\n I contacted Gun Owners of America this week to ask for their best current estimate.<\/p>\n Spokesman Robert Duggar responded: \u201cWe\u2019re not aware of any new studies. As far as we know the old annual usage numbers of 2.5 million by Gary Kleck\u201d (www.guncite.com\/gun_control_gcdguse.html<\/a> or www.pulpless.com\/gunclock\/kleck2.html<\/a>) \u201cand 1.5 million by the Clinton Justice Department are the latest estimates out there.\u201d<\/p>\n I did write a column following a similar incident in 1999, when racist nut Benjamin Nathaniel Smith killed two and wounded nine in a series of drive-by shootings of blacks, Asian-Americans, and Orthodox Jews in Illinois and Indiana before dying in a struggle with police on the Fourth of July.<\/p>\n Back then, I pointed out \u201cNo one mentions that again, as in Colin Ferguson\u2019s terrible shooting spree on the Long Island Railroad a few years back (in a jurisdiction where none of the victims was allowed to carry arms), and as in the worst American mass shooting in recent memory, in which 23 occupants of the Luby\u2019s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, were shot down like dogs because state law required them to leave their firearms out in their cars … none of Benjamin Nathaniel Smith\u2019s victims was armed.\u201d<\/p>\n (If Arizonans are so \u201coverarmed\u201d because of \u201clax gun laws,\u201d as we\u2019re now told, how did last weekend\u2019s nut empty a whole magazine before being tackled? Why did the only other armed person in the area, one Joe Zamudio, have to push his way through the entire crowd before locating the culprit, who by then had already been tackled and brought to the ground?)<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Oh, being armed is no solution,\u2019 the mincing minions of genocide will surely simper,\u201d I continued in that 1999 column. \u2018The bad guy will only take your gun away and use it on you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n I responded by detailing the mass shooting spree that never occurred in Santa Clara, Calif., that Fourth of July weekend.<\/p>\n That\u2019s right: the one that never occurred. Funny how crime sprees that are PREVENTED by law-abiding citizens with guns never make the front page, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n Reuters reported on July 6, 1999, from Santa Clara, Calif., \u201cA shootout at a California shooting range ended a bizarre hostage drama during which three gun store employees found themselves staring down the barrel of one of their own rented rifles, police said Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cSgt. Anton Morec of the Santa Clara Police Department said the aspiring gunman, 21-year-old Richard Gable Stevens … \u2018intended to go out in a blaze of glory,\u2019 noting Stevens had accumulated more than 100 rounds of ammunition for his rented 9 mm semi-automatic weapon.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018It certainly looks like he intended to take a lot more people out.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cMorec said Stevens arrived at the National Shooting Club Monday evening and rented the rifle for target practice. … After several minutes on the range, however, Stevens returned to the club\u2019s gun store and shot at the ceiling. He then herded three store employees out the door into an alley, saying he intended to kill them.<\/p>\n \u201cUnknown to Stevens, one store employee was carrying a .45-caliber handgun concealed beneath his shirt. When Stevens looked away, the employee fired, hitting Stevens several times in the chest and bringing him to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n After Stevens was hospitalized, police found a note to his parents, predicting they would be bankrupted by lawsuits from the relatives of his intended \u201cvictims.\u201d Reuters said police concluded \u201cThe quick action by the gun club employee may have headed off a massacre.\u201d<\/p>\n Sounds like the Santa Clara gunman intended to do pretty much what this Loughner twerp did in Tucson back on Jan. 8, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n What was different was — one law-abiding citizen with a gun (even in hoplophobe California) and the willingness to use it.<\/p>\n Yet which case made the front pages and the evening news — the tragedy with the unarmed victims, or the story that proves the best way to stop such crimes before they start?<\/p>\n