Gun control advocates long have controlled the narrative about defensive uses of firearms, calling the “good guy with a gun” scenario a “myth meant to scare people into buying guns for self-defense.”
This is a false narrative that does not reflect reality.
Despite a backdrop of rhetoric asserting that “the average person . . . has basically no chance in their lifetime ever to use a gun in self-defense,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a 2013 report concluded that studies routinely find that Americans use firearms in defense of themselves or others between 500,000 and 3 million times every year.
Data collected by the CDC itself, but long hidden from the public, indicates that the number is likely around 1 million defensive gun uses per year. But even the lowest end of this statistical range far outpaces the number of times Americans use firearms for unlawful purposes.
It’s one thing to hear that incredible number and know that the “good guy with a gun” is not a myth. It’s another thing entirely to dig deeper into the firsthand accounts of individual law-abiding Americans whose lives and livelihoods were saved because they were able to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
In each of the first two months of 2019, we shed light on the stories of defensive gun use that too rarely make local—much less national—headlines.
Our research shows that March was no different in terms of armed, everyday citizens defending their inalienable rights against criminals, many of whom were armed with unlawfully possessed deadly weapons.
Here are just a few of these “no chance in a lifetime” cases, based on police accounts:
—March 2, Los Lunas, New Mexico. A homeowner, responding to knocking at his door, was confronted by two individuals, one holding a knife and the other a baseball bat. They individuals forced their way in and demanded money. The homeowner was able to retrieve his firearm, then shot and wounded both intruders, who collapsed outside and were arrested.
— March 3, Cleveland. Two armed men wearing hoodies to conceal their faces entered a deli. One men tried to force his way behind the counter while the other yelled at the owner to open the cash register. The owner pulled out his own firearm and shot at the men, sending them running. The deli was open for business the next day, with the owner telling local media: “I have been here for 40 years, and I’m not going anywhere.”
Read the full story from The Daily Signal
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