Home invasions

Home invasions. Rapes. Carjackings. Murders. Every day our local and national news report that these heinous crimes are being committed all around us. What rarely is reported is the number of crimes that are prevented when people use guns in self-defense. According to research by Florida State University, Tallahassee, an estimated 2,500,000 Americans use a gun to protect themselves from criminals each year.

In most cases, no shots are ever fired; the mere act of wielding a weapon is enough to deter the criminal and stop the intended offense. "At first glance the statistics might seem high, but you must understand the dynamics involved," notes Chris Bird, author of Thank God I Had a Gun: True Accounts of Self-Defense. "Most people who defend themselves with a gun don't report the incident to law enforcement officials--and unless a criminal is actually shot, you probably won't hear about it in the news."

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COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning