Debating the GunLoons (Part Mm)
The Defensive Gun Use (DGU).
Quite often, the gunloon will regale you with tales about how many lives were saved when gun-toting, law-abiding citizen exercised his Second Amendment God-given right to firearms and prevented a crime. This tale is called a defensive gun use or DGU. The gunloon will point out that the firearm may not have been fired–but merely brandished, causing criminal(s) to cease their criminal activities and flee the scene.
The patron saint of the DGU is a criminologist, Gary Kleck. Kleck has a number of studies as to the frequency of DGUs, ranging from 1M to 2.5M DGUs occurring annually in the US. There have been quite a number of folks who have issues with Kleck’s methodology.
But even if we assume Kleck’s methodology is flawless, there are problems with Kleck’s findings that are readily apparent. For example, Kleck’s own research states that in 8% of all DGUs, the gun is fired–wounding an alleged criminal. Kleck also notes that 15% of gun shot wounds are fatal. If we do the math: 2.5M DGUs x .08 woundings x .15 fatal wounds, we should have 30,000 justifiable gun homicides each year in the US.
Uh oh. The FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) show under 300 justifiable homicides each year–from all causes, not just gun-related.
Ah, yes, Hemenway. The same individual who claimed that gun owners are more likely to have “road rage” but neglected to point out that his own study showed that “liberals” are more likely than anyone else. No wonder he has issues about releasing his raw data.
Comment by Thirdpower — July 6, 2007 @ 11:43 am
Thirdpower: I wasn’t aware of Hemenway’s study about road rage and gunowners.
It seems you have made quite a bit of an exaggeration. Here’s Hemenway’s response in the American Rifleman:
Comment by Administrator — July 7, 2007 @ 3:06 pm
Thirdpower also suggested Hemenway refuses to realease his data. The cite above addresses this; needless to say, Thirdpower has been led astray by a certain John Lott.
Comment by Administrator — July 7, 2007 @ 3:08 pm
The FBI’s justifiable homicide stats include only “justifiable” not “excusable” homicides–and they are pretty picky about that distinction.
The justifiable homicide count (like the murders and non-negligent manslaughters count) is based on initial charges. If after the initial charges are filed, the police, district attorney, judge, or jury, decide that the charge of murder or manslaughter is wrong, the FBI’s murders and justifiable homicide stats won’t show the change. You can find this in the FBI’s Crime in the United States report where they discuss methodology.
The FBI also underreports justifiable homicides by police officers. That’s not intentional; it’s an artifact of failures in how thoroughly many departments report non-crimes.
Comment by Clayton E. Cramer — July 13, 2007 @ 12:26 pm
Clayton: The fact is this is a pretty picayune distinction. Some homicides may be reclassified as criminal homicides–that, too, won’t be changed.
The fact is excusable homicides–homicides that are not the result of a criminal act. IOW, an excusable homicide is usually an accident with some mitigating or extenuating circumstances.
The FBI estimates that excusable homicides comprise less than 2% of all homicides. So, if we add another 150 to the fewer than 300 justifiable homicides–it does little to change the fact most DGU figures are wildly inflated.
But excusable homicides are a deflection. Remember, most excusable homicides are those involving an accident or some kind of incident that occurs in “the heat of the moment.”
How many death could have been prevented if a firearm was not present?
Comment by Administrator — July 13, 2007 @ 6:39 pm
“According to G Kleck closer to 2,800 since FBI Crime Reports used by statisticians exclude any “Justifiable or excusable ” homoicide which isn’t labelled that in the initial police report”
quote J Neil Schulman’s book stopping power page 147
Comment by The Duck — October 12, 2007 @ 1:59 pm
Yes VPC stated the DGU is only around 800,000 per year
Comment by The Duck — October 12, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
Duck: I have noidea what your 2800 figure represents–justifiable homicides?
WRT DGUs–800K isn’t 2.5M as claimed by Kleck. Gunloons also seem to forget the numbers of times a firearm is used to harrass, intimidate or threaten people.
Comment by Administrator — October 12, 2007 @ 2:06 pm