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, July 17, 2026
In a landmark victory for the Second Amendment and the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit today held that New Jersey’s bans on commonly owned semiautomatic rifles and magazines ...
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Since the U.S. Congress enacted the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act of 1986, an American has enjoyed the right to travel with firearms “from any place where he may lawfully possess and carry such firearm to ...
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
On June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Wolford v. Lopez. The case involved a Hawaii law that presumptively banned carry permit holders from carrying their arms onto publicly accessible private property, unless the carrier ...
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity has been a popular topic lately. President Donald Trump brought it up during an appearance at a Mack Trucks facility in Macungie, Pa., on June 23, proclaiming, “National Right-to-Carry, we’re working on it.”
Tuesday, July 14, 2026
On July 14, 2026, the U.S. House passed H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. This important legislation, sponsored by Representative Riley Moore (R-WV-02), would prohibit credit card companies from tracking the purchases of ...
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