One of my biggest regrets in my book was stumbling across English’s research way too late. I was only able to mention it briefly. In fact it is worse than that, because I hadn’t heard of it, I had assumed that some of the Defensive Gun Use (DGU) statistics I referenced came from Kleck’s research when they may have come from English’s research. I hope to do a deep dive and issue corrections sometime this year. This mistake is embarrassing for me as I may be comparing English’s research to, well, English’s research. DOH! I hope to make some amends by looking at the updated analysis in this posting.
The paper is professional and is also an easy read. I would recommend that everyone take the time to read it (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4109494). I’ll focus only on those items that I think are significant that I did not have time to incorporate (purposefully or accidentally!) in my book. However, there is something that is important to mention:
- In my analysis of the National Crime Victimization Survey data, injurious violent crime had some attributes that deserve attention. The first is that the victim usually knows the offender. Second, the location of the incident is commonly at the home or the property of the home. Lastly, the offender doesn’t use a firearm often. I believe these attributes support and compliment the DGU work English has done. Based upon his analysis, most DGUs occur at the home or property of the home and the firearm is usually not discharged.
Some other interesting data from English’s paper:
- 9.1% of DGUs occurred in public.
- 48.8% of DGUs involved one assailant, 51.2% involved more than one.
- 1.5 million incidents per year where the presence of a firearm deterred crime (i.e., firearm was not discharged).
- 16% of gun owners carry a concealed firearm always or often. While English includes “Sometimes” as part of the concealed carry regime, I do not.
- Around 44% of gun owners never carry a concealed firearm.
- Using a firearm to defend against non-human animals was significant.
For my book and based on this research, I think the biggest area that needs improvement is researching multiple offenders. My analysis focused on a single offender. Additionally, I didn’t factor in using a firearm to defend against non-human animals. However, is suspect, much like violent crime, there are many things you can do to dramatically reduce your risk.
- In the city: A common theme in the city is that you are walking your dog and another dog gets loose from the backyard of a resident. These dogs are not familiar with other dogs and they could attack your dogs as well as you. Also, city dogs that are familiar with humans and are trained to attack strangers are very dangerous to other residents if they get loose. Additionally, dogs without a leash are always suspect. Finally, even if a dog is on a leash, they can get away from their owner. If you are enjoying time in the city, a JPX4 Compact or JPX6 will help protect you. These are non-fatal effective weapons that shoot pepper spray up effectively up to around 18 feet (see my book on these products). A cautionary note about using firearms in this situation is that you may find yourself in a gunfight if you shoot someone’s pet, even if their pet attacks you. There is an unnatural fixation with some pet owners who consider their pet their child, and even if their “child” is in the wrong, will consider lethal acts against them to be cause for escalation. In short, if you carry a firearm, you should also carry a JPX4/JPX6 (or perhaps bear spray) when walking in the city, especially when walking your dogs.
- For the rest of this list, I’ll focus on the country. Unlike the city, firearms are more appropriate for the country and animal attacks. I’m going to assume if you are hunting, you are prepared for animal attacks. However, if you are just out hiking or enjoying the woods, here are some questions to ponder.
- What animals have been known to attack humans in your area?
- Are these animals solitary or pack animals?
- What time of year is it? Are mothers with their young? The motherly instinct is alive and well in animals. Don’t mess with it. /
- What way is the wind blowing? Ideally, you’ll want animals to smell you before they see you. The wind at your back and blowing past you to trail ahead is best.
- Make noise. If that ruins the outdoors for you, check if you can get some device that makes noise that humans can’t hear but the critters in the area can hear.
- If you are walking with someone, like your spouse, recognize that a large animal such as a bear, will be throwing their prey around. If you are armed with a firearm, you may not get a clear shot until that someone is dead. If you are walking with someone, you can carry a firearm and they can carry a JPX4/JPX6, or bear spray if you are in bear country.
- While their is always a chance you will run into a starving/wounded/rabid animal, I suspect many attacks happen in “hold my beer” moments. Don’t be stupid with wild animals.
Let’s get back to William’s work. I think William’s did a lot of things right here. In addition, there is a good amount of information on weapon type and magazine capacity. For my book, this information wasn’t directly relevant to what I was discussing.
For future DGUs research, it would be interesting to learn the following:
- Was your assailant or were any of your assailants armed with a firearm?
- Was your assailant or were any of your assailants armed with a non-firearm weapon?
- If the firearm was not discharged, did you report the matter to law enforcement?
- If the firearm was discharged, did you report the matter to law enforcement?
- If you did not report the matter to law enforcement, what was the reason? Too much hassle, not enough information to bother law enforcement, or afraid criminal charges would be weighed against you?
- If you had a single assailant, was the assailant a stranger or couldn’t be identified (e.g., masked)?
- If you had multiple assailants, were they all strangers or couldn’t be identified (e.g., masked)?
- If your assailant (or at least one of your assailants) was identified and not a stranger, what was your relationship to the assailant? Former friend, ex-lover, ex-spouse, acquaintance, biological family, stepfamily, or in-law family.