In a message dated 2/5/03 12:01:23 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > >>Indeed, the main finding from the surveys is not the brandishment result >>but the fact that guns are used defensively several million times a year >>(according to Kleck's survey and several others.) > >Which is highly suspect. It is computed by projecting the fraction of people >in a relatively small sample who say they used firearms defensively to >the whole population. Anyone who has ever worked with survey data knows >that error rates of a couple of percent (at least) on all sorts of questions >are common. Both coding errors and reporting errors substantially increase >(in percentage terms) the fraction of respondents giving positive responses >to questions with very low fractions of positive responses. Think also >about how people treat surveys (for example the number of people who say >they have been abducted by aliens). I would bet any money that the true >fraction of people who use firearms in self-defense (brandishment or ot herwise) >is a whole heck of a lot lower (an order of m
While she was Attorney General, Janet Reno commissioned a study to try to prove that private firearms ownership does not deter crime. The commission concluded nonetheless that Americans use firearms .5 to 1.5 million times a year to deter crimes. Given the obvious bias of the study, this conclusion makes the Lott/Kleck numbers quite credible. DBL
