Defensive Gun Use Statistics: Self-Defense Cases (2026) [More]
Using surveys, it’s impossible to come up with an accurate number, which explains the disparity of 2.5 million to 65,000 DGUs, which is still a lot more than the number of homicides.
The important statistic to remember is that 100% of gun prohibitionists would rather the defenders had been killed than armed.
The main issue I see is that “brandishing” is not considered as a DGU by many.
If there were no shots fired, the gun wasn’t “used.”
Kellerman was the earliest example I know of where that fallacy was crucial — “a gun in the home is 43 times more likely to kill yourself or an acquaintance than [to kill] an intruder.”
Note that the gun only gets credit for a positive outcome if it KILLS.
The earliest exploitation of this fallacy I know of was in Kellerman: “a gun in the home is 43 times more likely to kill yourself or an acquaintance than to kill an intruder.”
Note that the gun gets credit for a positive outcome only if it KILLS.
The system trashed your comments and I had to restore. Hence what looks like duplicates was actually two attempts, and I approved both, especially since younger readers — if there are any — may not be familiar with the fraud that was the Kellermann “study.” He went on to admit:
“If you’ve got to resist, you’re chances of being hurt are less the more lethal your weapon. If that were my wife, would I want her to have a .38 Special in her hand? Yeah.” (Health Magazine, March/April 1994)
https://waronguns.blogspot.com/search?q=Kellermann
So if my DGU wasn’t really a DGU, I had nothing to worry about by reporting it to the “Only Ones”…? 🙂