Citation

McDowall D, Wiersema B. Am. J. Public Health 1994; 84(12): 1982-1984.

Affiliation

Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland, College Park 20742-8235.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, American Public Health Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

7998641

PMCID

PMC1615397

Abstract

It is well known that many crimes in the United States are committed with firearms. Less adequately documented is the frequency with which victims use guns in self-defense. We used National Crime Victimization Survey data to examine incidents where victims employed guns against offenders. Between 1987 and 1990 there were an estimated 258,460 incidents of firearm defense, an annual mean of 64,615. Victims used firearms in 0.18% of all crimes recorded by the survey and in 0.83% of violent offenses. Firearm self-defense is rare compared with gun crimes.