that's tellin 'em clark. :)
DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion: "Bruce Fleming's June 27 letter, 'More Gun Owners Equals Less Gun Violence,' makes the statement that 'Guns are used 2.5 million times per year to defend life and home from criminals.'
The figure appears statistically impossible. If accurate, it would mean approximately one in 100 Americans - man, woman and child - would have used a firearm in the last year to defend their lives or property.
Yet a majority of Americans don't own a gun, much less use it annually to blast away at attackers. Translated to my town of 5,000, it would imply there were 50 such incidents of defensive shooting in the last year. I would have heard about such a wave of violence.
The only way the numbers work is if recreational hunting is included in the mix. Perhaps the source of the data has counted ducks, deer and other game in his definition of 'criminals.'
This sounds improbable, but it makes the statistic believable and is on a similar intellectual level to other arguments by the National Rifle Association and its supporters.
Clark Sheets,
Sheldon. "