The myth of the trigger happy vigilante [View all]

[Nuclear Unicorn]

In 2012, there were 8,855 criminal gun homicides in the FBI's homicide database, but only 258 gun killings by private citizens that were deemed justifiable, which the FBI defines as "the killing of a felon, during the commission of a felony, by a private citizen."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/19/guns-in-america-for-every-criminal-killed-in-self-defense-34-innocent-people-die/

Okay. So, what are some underlying facts we should know about this stat?

* There are over 300 million guns in the US.

* Those 300+ million guns are owned by roughly 90 million households.

* 1% of the US population is responsible for approximately 60% of the crime

* Approximately 60% of homicides are perpetrated by someone with a prior criminal record

* Depending on the source there are 70,000 DGUs annually (though some studies assert hundreds of thousands of DGUs annually)


What's the takeaway? Americans are heavily armed but they aren't itching for a fight. Of the 70,000 who do find themselves in a situation where they are legally entitled to defend themselves only 258 actually killed their attacker.

Criminals, however, are on a trajectory to increasingly violent behavior and cannot be trusted to consider the consequences of their actions.