Thoughts on 2013 CDC Study Regarding Guns and SD

[sherman123]

What's the general consensus on this study?http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/cdc-study-use-firearms-self-defense-important-crime-deterrent I'm sorry for posting some rather old info but I'm guessing I hadn't heard about this on mainstream media before for a reason lol. Is this accurate and does anyone know where I can get some more info on it? It really blows the gun control arguments out of the water I must say Anyone have any info on this being legit? I want to double check before I use this in a debate with a gun control activist I know.

 

[herrwalther]

2013 isn't all that old. After all the antis like to drudge up studies from the 90s showing how the AWB "worked."

The CDC does a pretty good job staying non partisan, being a government agency. Numbers from them show between 1 and 2 million instances a year where a firearm is used in a self defense capacity. A pretty good number for our side considering only a handful by comparison are killed every year by malice.

The CDC gets plenty of flak about firearm ownership and research considering firearms have nothing to do with "disease."

 

[ACP]

The report says much more study needs to be done re: defensive use of firearms; they estimate 108,000 to 3 million defensive uses of firearms a year. That is a factor of 30 that they can't pinpoint.

They also note this:

"Even when defensive use of guns is effective in averting death or injury for the gun user in cases of crime, it is still possible that keeping a gun in the home or carrying a gun in public—concealed or open carry—may have a different net effect on the rate of injury. For example, if gun ownership raises the risk of suicide, homicide, or the use of weapons by those who invade the homes of gun owners, this could cancel or outweigh the beneficial effects of defensive gun use."

Bottom line for me: when the amped-up druggie tries to jack my wife and kids when I am present, there will be self-defense, stats. or no stats.

 

[22-rimfire]

I don't know why they include police shootings and suicides with their statistics. If some body wants to kill themselves, they'll find a way. I don't blame the presence of firearms inside a home as justification for any kind of potential legislative firearm restrictions/controls.

 

[herrwalther]

I don't know why they include police shootings and suicides with their statistics. If some body wants to kill themselves, they'll find a way. I don't blame the presence of firearms inside a home as justification for any kind of potential legislative firearm restrictions/controls.

Easy numbers. Police shootings have reports, hard evidence. Suicides have reports, autopsies. Easy to chart and classify. Self defense shootings have all sorts of grey area and scattered reporting. If you are walking to your car one night and someone comes up to you threatening with a baseball bat, you shout "I have a gun!" and they run, may or may not be reported. Criminologists call this the "dark figure of crime." Which is crimes that happen but with little or no knowledge to police.

 

[Drail]

The CDC works for the White House. I wouldn't pay any attention to their "social study research". It's not their job any more than it is the FBI's job to release studies on cell stem research.

 

[Cesiumsponge]

It was released in June 2013 with little fanfare because the findings didn't support the White House assertions.

 

[herrwalther]

The CDC works for the White House. I wouldn't pay any attention to their "social study research". It's not their job any more than it is the FBI's job to release studies on cell stem research.

The CDC gets funding from the government, yes. I have family members who work for the CDC and they do a pretty good job separating their political agendas from their research.