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
Friday, March 20, 2026
The saga of ATF’s enforcement of the National Firearm Act’s “short barreled rifle” provisions against braced pistols has been a roller coaster ride of shifting interpretations. NRA-ILA has been keeping up with, reporting on, and ...
Sunday, March 15, 2026
On Saturday, March 14th, the Virginia General Assembly adjourned sine die from the 2026 legislative session, and the future of the Commonwealth hangs in the balance.
Thursday, March 19, 2026
After Phil Murphy signed NJ’s Carry Killer bill (A.4769), in a complete rejection of the Supreme Court’s holding in Bruen, the Attorney General’s Office elected to voluntarily release data relating to the number of carry permit applications, including ...
Monday, March 16, 2026
This month, Michigan’s judicial branch published the 2025 edition of its annual report on the state’s Extreme Risk Protection Order Act (red flag gun confiscation order statute).
Friday, March 20, 2026
This week, the Senate passed House Bill 2501, removing suppressors and short barreled firearms from the controlled weapons list at the state level.
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