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, August 3, 2026
Since 1903, the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) has served a critical role in promoting America’s continued excellence in marksmanship and firearms safety by providing firearms education, training, and competitions nationwide
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 ...
Monday, August 10, 2026
The Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) public transit system has long been chancy for ordinary commuters, as documented by the excellent local crime reporting website, CWB Chicago.
Monday, August 10, 2026
When the federal government no longer sits on the sidelines and files its own lawsuit to protect the Second Amendment, pay attention. When the federal government is not just offering another amicus brief about their ...
Monday, August 10, 2026
When big news hits the Nation’s Capital, everyone notices. But a lot of the real work that keeps your Second Amendment rights strong happens quietly, deep in the federal rule-making process.
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