http://www.independent.com/news/2007/may/24/defensive-logic/
Defensive Logic
By Henry Delgado
Thursday, May 24, 2007
While I have no doubt that Mike Vandeman, PhD, is a well-educated and
reasonable man, I submit that the information he has gleaned from his
associates regarding firearms is woefully inadequate [ "Close
Reading," May 10]. Dr. Vandeman starts out by labeling it
=93preposterous=94 to say that guns are used defensively 2.5 million times
a year. I respectfully refer Dr. Vandeman to a 1993 national survey
re****t by Gary Kleck, Florida State University criminology professor.
Using a survey sample of 4,977 respondents (the usual survey sample is
in the 600 to 1,600 range), Professor Kleck determined that guns are
used an average of 2.5 million times a year to prevent or defend
against a crime. In 1994, Bill Clinton=92s Department of Justice
sponsored a survey titled "Guns in America: National Survey on Private
Owner****p and Use of Firearms." They used a smaller sample size than
Kleck, and estimated 1.5 million defensive uses of firearms annually.
It is unfortunate Dr. Vandeman doesn=92t know any gun owners. Contrary
to his assertion that a =93tiny minority of the population own guns,=94
here are the facts for his perusal: There are approximately
300,000,000 people in the U.S. There are approximately 65,000,000 gun
owners in the U.S. That=92s about 22 percent of the population. There
are 200 million firearms (65 million-70 million handguns). Firearms
are used for protection by 11 percent of firearms owners (13 percent
of handgun owners). Criminal yearly misuse of firearms is less than
0.2 percent (and less than 0.4 percent for handguns).
I=92m confident that Dr. Vandeman will be enlightened by these figures.
I have personally been a participant in defusing a possible crime
because we were armed=97but that=92s another story.=97Henry Delgado
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