Statistics

These are FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics for 1997-2001.

 

Justifiable Homicide by Weapon, Private Citizen,1 1997-2001
	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Total Firearms	238	170	158	138	176
Total	280	196	192	164	215

This data is from the US Department of Justice press release Guns and Crime: Handgun Victimization, Firearm Self-Defense. The data used for this analysis is from 1987-1992. I have been unable to find a similar analysis using more recent data.

Self-defense with firearms:

"*38% of the victims defending themselves with a firearm attacked the offender, and the others threatened the offender with the weapon.

*A fifth of the victims defending themselves with a firearm suffered an injury, compared to almost half of those who defended themselves with weapons other than a firearm or who had no weapon.

Care should be used in interpreting these data because many aspects of crimes--including victim and offender characteristics, crime circumstances, and offender intent--contribute to the victims' injury outcomes.

About three-fourths of the victims who used firearms for self-defense did so during a crime of violence, 1987-92"

 

Average annual number of victimizations in which victims used firearms to defend themselves or their property
	Total	Attacked Offender	Threatened Offender
All Crimes	82,500	30,600	51,900
Total Violent Crime	62,200	25,500	36,700
With Injury	12,100	7,300	4,900
Without Injury	50,000	18,200	31,800

"Note: Detail may not add to total because of rounding. Includes victimizations in which offenders were unarmed. Excludes homicides.

*In most cases victims who used firearms to defend themselves or their property were confronted by offenders who were either unarmed or armed with weapons other than firearms.

On average between 1987 and 1992, about 35% (or 22,000 per year) of the violent crime victims defending themselves with a firearm faced an offender who also had a firearm."

 

Handguns and crime, 1987-92
	1992	Annual Average 1987-1991
Handgun Crimes	930,700	667,000
Homicide	13,200	10,600
Rape	11,800	14,000
Robbery	339,000	225,100
Assault	566,800	417,300

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