The incidence of defensive firearm use by US crime victims, 1987 through 1990.
D McDowall and
B Wiersema
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland, College Park 20742-8235.
It is well known that many crimes in the United States are committedwith firearms. Less adequately documented is the frequency withwhich victims use guns in self-defense. We used National CrimeVictimization Survey data to examine incidents where victimsemployed guns against offenders. Between 1987 and 1990 therewere an estimated 258,460 incidents of firearm defense, an annualmean of 64,615. Victims used firearms in 0.18% of all crimesrecorded by the survey and in 0.83% of violent offenses. Firearmself-defense is rare compared with gun crimes.
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