Every so often, a local news story about a victim of crime goes national. Most recently, it was Sarah McKinley, 18, home alone with her 3 month old son, a few days after Sarah's husband had died of lung cancer. Two men apparently looking to steal pain medicine prescribed for the husband broke in. Sarah grabbed a shotgun and a pistol and killed Justin Martin as he forced entry into her home. How often do such incidents happen? While the results from studies vary, the numbers are large. The National Crime Victimization Survey, for various procedural reasons, is at the low end, showing 108,000 such cases a year (although this was some years back, when crime rates were higher than now). The widely reported Kleck/Gertz study, which has its own set of problems, showed a range of 830,000 to 2.45 million defensive gun uses per year. Other studies have fallen solidly in the middle, with hundreds of thousands of defensive gun uses per year.
Cramer: On the right side of the bullet
Friday, February 10, 2012
Monday, October 12, 2026
As we announced separately this week, ATF has determined that it will use its executive discretion to uniformly suspend enforcement of large portions of the National Firearms Act (NFA).
Monday, October 19, 2026
More than half a century ago, Stanley Kubrick’s film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, introduced the world to HAL-9000, a sentient “supercomputer” with advanced artificial intelligence (AI) processing. When HAL, responsible for running the spacecraft, decides ...
Wednesday, August 5, 2026
In another major victory for the National Rifle Association and law-abiding gun owners, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas today held that the National Firearms Act’s registration and approval requirements for ...
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Not every important Second Amendment or hunting policy fight begins with a bill number.
Monday, October 19, 2026
‘Tis the Halloween season of fear and disguise, and, in step with the holiday, the gun control ghouls are embracing a familiar tradition of their own. When facts aren’t quite frightening enough, firearm prohibitionists often ...
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