Originally Posted by bogie

Had you gotten a good shot, would you have taken it? When I was 18 years old I spent a summer in Mt. Home, AR. My buddy and I rented a room at a small resort. It was one room with twin beds. I kept a single shot 20 guage loaded and broke down under my bed. Late one night our door opened and someone started walking in our room. As soon as the door started opening I fell to the floor grabbed my shotgun, snapped it closed and pointed it at the guy who was probably no more than 10 feet away, I screamed, "hey". There was definately an instant where I had to decide do I shoot or do I see if he'll run. When he saw a gun was pointed at his chest, he screamed at the top of his lungs "wrong room" and ran. Luckily the door was open or he would have run through it. I'm pretty sure this guy was just a drunk that happened to open the wrong door. I'm glad I didn't shoot first and ask questions later.

Originally Posted by Clint in Wichita

I want a nuke.

Originally Posted by Clint in Wichita

If I were a criminal & I was serious about my profession, I'd get my hands on a silencer, and I would always kill my "marks".

With all of these law-abiding citizens carrying guns, why take any chances?

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

Here are some of your requested stats Hamas. Unfortunately the first link I posted here that quoted the governmet resources for these stats has now been dedicated to our failing education system. ROFL I am sure you will find that an interesting read.

When anti-gun activists list the number of deaths per year from firearms, they neglect to mention that 60% of the 30,000 figure they so often use are suicides. They also fail to mention that at least three quarters of the 12,000 homicides are criminals killing other criminals in disputes over illicit drugs, or police shooting criminals engaged in felonies. Subtracting those, we are left with no more than 3,000 deaths in the entire country that I think most would consider valid. Give me a freaking break you Geraldo groupies. Get a life and leave are freedoms alone.

http://www.eagleforum.org/psr/2001/mar01/psrmar01.shtml

Crime prevention Statistics
The Bureau of Justice Statistics says gun-related deaths and injuries fell 33 percent from 1993 to 1997. At the same time, the number of firearms in this country was up by nearly 10 percent.
The Daily Oklahoman, 12-17-2000

In 1979, out of more than 32,000 attempted rapes, 32% were actually committed. But when a woman was armed with a gun or knife, only 3% of the attempted rapes were actually successful.
U.S. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, Rape Victimization in 26 American Cities, 1979, p. 31.
In 1982, Kennesaw, Atlanta passed a law requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in the house. The residential burglary rate subsequently dropped 89%.
Gary Kleck, 'Crime Control Through the Private Use of Armed Force,' Social Problems 35 (February 1988):15.
3/5 of felons polled agreed that 'a criminal is not going to mess around with a victim he knows is armed with a gun.'
U.S., Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 'The Armed Criminal in America: A Survey of Incarcerated Felons,' Research Report, (July 1985): 27.

74% of felons polled agreed that 'one reason burglars avoid houses when people are at home is that they fear being shot during the crime.'
U.S., Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 'The Armed Criminal in America: A Survey of Incarcerated Felons,' Research Report, (July 1985): 27.

57% of felons polled agreed that 'criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police.'
U.S., Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 'The Armed Criminal in America: A Survey of Incarcerated Felons,' Research Report, (July 1985): 27.
The Department of Justice found that in 1989, there were 168,881 crimes of violence which were not responded to by police within 1 hour.
Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics -- 1990, (1991):257
"Since police started keeping statistics, we now know that assault weapons are/were used in an under whelming 0.026 of 1% of crimes in New Jersey. This means that my officers are more likely to confront an escaped tiger from the local zoo than to confront an assault rifle in the hands of a drug-crazed killer on the streets."
Joseph Constance (deputy chief of Trenton NJ police dept) in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Aug 1993
The data from the 1990 Harvard Medical Practice Study suggest that 150,000 Americans die every year from doctors' negligence -- compared with 38,000 gun deaths annually. Why are doctors not declared a public health menace? Because they save more lives than they take. And so it is with guns. Every year, good Americans use guns about 2.5 million times to protect themselves and their families, which means 65 lives are protected by guns for every life lost to a gun.
Dr. Edgar Suter, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/12/94, Opinion (p. A17)
34% of felons said they personally had been "scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim."
69% said that they knew at least one other criminal who had also.
34% said that when thinking about committing a crime they either "often" or "regularly" worried that they might get shot at by the victim."
James D. Wright & Peter H. Rossi, Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms (1986).



Self Defense Statistics
Law-abiding citizens use guns to defend themselves against criminals as many as 2.5 million times every year -- or about 6,850 times a day.
Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz, Armed Resistance to Crime
Of the 2.5 million times citizens use their guns to defend themselves every year, the overwhelming majority merely brandish their gun or fire a warning shot to scare off their attackers. Less than 8% of the time, a citizen will kill or wound his/her attacker.
Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz, Armed Resistance to Crime
As many as 200,000 of the 2.5 million are by women defending themselves against sexual abuse.
Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz, Armed Resistance to Crime
In 1993 'only 2 percent of civilian shootings involved an innocent person mistakenly identified as a criminal. The 'error rate' for the police, however, was 11 percent, more than five times as high.
Newsweek, November 15, 1993
In 89.6% of violent crimes directed against women, the offender does not have a gun; and only 10% of rapists carry a firearm. Thus, armed women will usually have a decided advantage against their attackers.
Don B. Kates, Jr., Guns, Murders, and the Constitution: A Realistic Assessment of Gun Control, (1990), at 29, citing U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Citizens shoot and kill at least twice as many criminals as police do every year (1,527 to 606).
Kleck, Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America, (1991):111-116, 148.
In 1966-67, the media highly publicized a safety course which taught Orlando women how to use guns. The result: Orlando's rape rate dropped 88% in 1967, whereas the rape rate remained constant in the rest of Florida and the nation.
Kleck, 'Crime Control,' at 13.
85% of Americans believe people should have the right to use firearms to defend themselves in their homes, 64% favor allowing law-abiding citizens to carry firearms for personal protection outside their homes, and 72% favor stiffer sentences for criminals who use a gun in crime rather then more gun laws.
Survey of voters, Lawrence Research, 1998.

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Congrats, you found the one source more inane and biased than Newsmax. ROFL

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

99% of all criminals are dumb as hell, fortunately.

I still think the best deterent is a real dog. Almost every episode of Court TV I have ever seen I could say that wouldn't have happened had they had a good version of mans best friend.

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

The presence of a gun in the "home" increases the risk of suicide fivefold

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

For every time a gun is used in a "home" in a legally-justifiable shooting [note that every self-defense is legally justifiable] there are 22 criminal, unintentional, and suicide-related shootings. [Kellermann AL, Somes G, Rivara FP, et al. "Injuries and deaths due to firearms in the home." The Journal of Trauma. 1998;45:263-267]
The presence of a gun in the "home" triples the risk of homicide in the "home". [Kellermann, AL, Rivara, FP, Rushforth NB, et al. "Gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home." N Engl J Med. 1993;329:1084-1091.]
The presence of a gun in the "home" increases the risk of suicide fivefold.[Kellermann, AL Rivara FP, Somes G, et al. "Suicide in the home in relation to gun ownership." N Engl J Med. 1992;327:467-472.]
"The great majority of the victims (76.7 percent) were killed by a relative or someone known to them. Homicides by a stranger accounted for only 15 cases (3.6 percent). The identity of the offender could not be established in 73 cases (17.4 percent). The remaining cases involved other offenders or police acting in the line of duty."[Kellermann, AL, Rivara, FP, Rushforth NB, et al. "Gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home." N Engl J Med. 1993;329:1084-1091.]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

For every time a gun is used in a "home" in a legally-justifiable shooting [note that every self-defense is legally justifiable] there are 22 criminal, unintentional, and suicide-related shootings. [Kellermann AL, Somes G, Rivara FP, et al. "Injuries and deaths due to firearms in the home." The Journal of Trauma.

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

I have news for you dipstick. Criminals don't don't follow the law that's why their outlaws. People who want to commit suicide don't need a gun they can always jump off overpasses into oncoming cars or the like.

2.5 Million DGU's. There is nothing else left to say except maybe you should look at the rate violent crime has risen in Engand and Australia since they enacted their ridiculous gun laws. You passivist liberal panty waist POS even include cops shooting criminals is your statistics. What's next you going to disarm the police like they do over in Europe too?

BTW that passivist mentality saturates their military as well.