“I’ll give you my gun when you take it from my cold, dead hands!” Or so goes the popularized slogan once muttered by NRA President Charlton Heston (conservatives love electing them thar Hollywood stars). Sadly that phrase may ring true for gun owners after a recent study released by the American Journal of Public Health shows someone carrying a gun is more likely to be shot in an assault.
It’s not just a small difference, people carrying firearms were more than four times more likely to get shot. So just carrying a gun around increases your odds of getting capped.
But what if you pull your gun out?
Those instances where the victim had a chance to resist and attempt to defend themselves with their gun had even higher odds of getting shot. A whopping 5.45 ratio. Yes, according to this study, if you attempt to protect yourself with a gun you are over five times more likely to get shot.
The University of Pennsylvania study was conducted in Philadelphia, an urban area, which most likely skewed the results. Their conclusion however is solid:
“On average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. Although successful defensive gun uses occur each year, the probability of success may be low for civilian gun users in urban areas.”
2 Comments
There is no indication of the actual statistics. Who the combatants where. Where the incidents self defense or mutual combat situations or whether or not the victims were in legal possession of the firearm. I need more data before I’m willing to be fed this kind of rhetoric.
This apparent “study” was focused specifically on Philadelphia a city where gun ownership for protection, is as rampant as gun violence.
You are MORE LIKELY to get shot, if you live in an area, where you are MORE LIKELY to own a gun… is ALL this study proves.
This “study” would be like finding a group of people with headaches, going into their medicine cabinets and finding “Tylenol”, and then proclaiming that “You are more likely to get a headache if you take Tylenol”!