From: [Jacob Vetleson] at [f501.n914.z8.rbbs-net.ORG] (Jacob Vetleson)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Pim's Doubt of Kleck
Date: 26 Jan 94  10:59:00 PST

 -=> Quoting Pim Van Meurs to All <=-

 >Gary Kleck, a noted researcher in the field, places
 >estimates of defensive use of guns in the home at between 800,000...

 PVM> Noted researcher indeed. His guestimates are based on many unproven 
 PVM> assumptions. But you knew this, didn't you ?

Perhaps the tireless Pim will like this better:

 140,000 LA COUNTY GUN OWNERS HAVE USED FIREARM DEFENSIVELY
 
                     by J. Neil Schulman
 
      In the first data on defensive use of firearms by
 private citizens since the study by criminologist Gary
 Kleck of Florida State University, a Los Angeles Times poll
 published Sunday, May 17, 1992, indicates that 9% of
 Southern California gun owners have used a firearm in
 personal self-defense, resulting in an approximation of
 between 135,000 to 145,000 gun owners who have personally
 defended themselves with a gun in Los Angeles County alone. 
 The poll question excluded defensive use of a weapon in the
 military or while on the job. 
 
      Out of those who say they have used a gun in self-
 defense, only 2% say they actually fired the gun,
 signifying that the deterrence value of the firearm without
 being fired was approximately 98%. 
 
      The poll, conducted by telephone between April 9-15,
 1992, interviewed 2,619 Southern Californians 18 or older
 -- 878 gun owners and 1,741 non-gun-owners, and the Times
 pollsters, using demographic weighting, estimate the number
 of gun owners in Southern California as approximately 24%
 of the population.  Because of the size of the sample, the
 Times' pollsters give a 4% margin of error in their
 results.  
 
      The 1990 U.S. Census gives the 18-and-older population
 of Los Angeles County as 6,537,054.
 
      The Times' poll data is particularly useful, inasmuch
 as it can be directly correlated with other statistical
 information on crime drawn from the polling. 
 
      While 9% of Southern California gun owners report use
 of their weapon in defense against crime, 13% of Southern
 Californians report that a member of their household has
 been a victim of a violent crime or act of violence in the
 last two years, with 13% also reporting having personally
 witnessed a crime or act of violence. 
 
      This data, when correlated, indicates that among the
 subset of the population that owns a firearm, the firearm
 stands a significant chance of preventing a crime or act of
 violence when it occurs.  Just how high the deterrence
 effect is can not be correlated exactly because the Times'
 poll did not specify that the defense in question needed to
 be within the last two years, as the crime or act of
 violence in question was.
 
      Further, the highest rates of victimization are among
 African-Americans, at 20%, and Latinos, at 17%, while 11%
 of Anglos and 9% of Asian Americans are victimized.  With
 the exception of the Asian-American community, this
 victimization rate approximates an inverse proportion to
 the rate of firearms ownership in each community, with 43%
 of Anglos having at least one gun in their home or garage,
 33% of African-Americans, and 25% of Latinos.  The anomaly
 is the Asian-American community which has a 19% rate of
 firearms ownership and a relatively low rate of crime and
 violence.
 
      The Times' poll data tends to reinforce the findings
 of the study by Gary Kleck, Ph.D., a criminologist from the
 School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State
 University, Tallahassee, Florida, which he summarized at
 the August 29 through September 1, 1991, Annual Meeting of
 the American Political Science Association, as follows:
 
      "Each year," Kleck stated, "about 1500 - 2800
 criminals are lawfully killed by gun-wielding American
 civilians in justifiable or excusable homicides, far more
 than are killed by police officers.  There are perhaps
 600,000 - 1 million defensive uses of guns each year ...
 People who use guns for self-protection in robberies and
 assaults are less likely to have the crime completed
 against them (in a robbery, this means losing their
 property), and, contrary to widespread belief, are less
 likely to be injured, compared to either victims who use
 other forms of resistance or to victims who do nothing to
 resist.  (Criminals take the gun away from the victim in
 less than 1% of these incidents.)  The evidence does not
 support the idea that nonresistance is safer than resisting
 with a gun."

      The Los Angeles Times poll compiled other interesting
 data relating to firearms ownership:
 
  --  While 75% of all homicides in Los Angeles County are
 gun-related, 33% of homicides in Los Angeles County are
 gang-related -- either the shooter or the victim is gang-
 member.
 
  --  The chances of being shot in Los Angeles county:
 1/1000 (.1%) -- (same odds as getting lung cancer).
 
  --  Over the last five years, California Department of
 Justice records show 466,543 handguns sold in Los Angeles
 County.
 
  --  The vast majority of firearms in Los Angeles are owned
 by ordinary citizens rather than criminals or gang-members.
 
  --  29% of Southern California homes have guns compared to
 43% nationally, however most Southern Californians have
 guns for self-protection rather than sporting use, compared
 to opposite elsewhere.
 
  --  Most Southern California gun owners possess more than
 one gun.  70% own at least one handgun. 70% own a shotgun
 or rifle.
 
  -- Most firearms owners in Southern California have
 received formal firearms training, and firearms classes are
 booming, especially for women.
 
  --  Even though it is a misdemeanor, 25% of gun owners
 admit to sometimes carrying a loaded gun either in their
 car or on their person.  20% of gun owners admit to
 carrying a loaded gun in their car, and 11% admit to
 carrying a concealed loaded gun on their person.
 
  --  12-1/2% of Southern California residents are planning
 to buy a gun in 1992 -- 75% for self protection.  In a
 follow-up survey conducted in Los Angeles after the riots,
 5% of LA City residents said they will buy a gun as a
 result of the riots.
 
 
      -- J. Neil Schulman
         Founder and Chair
         The Committee to Enforce the Second Amendment
 ________________________________________________________
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