Just wanted to put this reference placeholder here in case others need to cite to it later.
We've all heard the anti-gunowner movement claim that justifiable homicide numbers are "low," therefore "proving" that (1) gun ownership benefits are outweighed by the harm of homicides, etc., and also (2) self-defense statistics estimating 1.5M+ defensive gun uses are a "myth."
A Michigan news website is doing a series on justifiable homicides in that state, trying to illustrate how people cope in differing ways with the aftermath of self defense. The series editor penned an intro to the series (linked below) that says everyone involved was surprised at how the reporters found that both state and FBI stats seriously under-report justifiable homicides.
There is a good paragraph a little more than halfway in the piece that sums up this surprise, but I have to refrain from quoting it per the forum rules.
Also - over half of justifiable homicides involved strangers; another data point against the anti-gunowner talking point of "very few cases of strangers attacking someone." And "Regular Joes" had more justifiable homicides than law enforcement.
Here is the link to the intro: http://www.mlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/06/introducing_mlives_justified_t.html
ETA: a link to the series home page - http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/06/justified_to_kill_blog_a_diges.html
ETA2 6/12/12 - one whole article talks about how the FBI stats only report one justifiable homicide in one Michigan county over ten years, when actually there were EIGHT such justifiable homicides. The local police chief explained that a killing is initially coded as a "homicide" right away, but if it later is deemed justified the incident does not get recoded as such.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/06/justifiable_homicides_underrep.html
We've all heard the anti-gunowner movement claim that justifiable homicide numbers are "low," therefore "proving" that (1) gun ownership benefits are outweighed by the harm of homicides, etc., and also (2) self-defense statistics estimating 1.5M+ defensive gun uses are a "myth."
A Michigan news website is doing a series on justifiable homicides in that state, trying to illustrate how people cope in differing ways with the aftermath of self defense. The series editor penned an intro to the series (linked below) that says everyone involved was surprised at how the reporters found that both state and FBI stats seriously under-report justifiable homicides.
There is a good paragraph a little more than halfway in the piece that sums up this surprise, but I have to refrain from quoting it per the forum rules.
Also - over half of justifiable homicides involved strangers; another data point against the anti-gunowner talking point of "very few cases of strangers attacking someone." And "Regular Joes" had more justifiable homicides than law enforcement.
Here is the link to the intro: http://www.mlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/06/introducing_mlives_justified_t.html
ETA: a link to the series home page - http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/06/justified_to_kill_blog_a_diges.html
ETA2 6/12/12 - one whole article talks about how the FBI stats only report one justifiable homicide in one Michigan county over ten years, when actually there were EIGHT such justifiable homicides. The local police chief explained that a killing is initially coded as a "homicide" right away, but if it later is deemed justified the incident does not get recoded as such.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/06/justifiable_homicides_underrep.html
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