Guns: how much longer will it take ....

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian police found seven dead people on Friday, including four children, in a rural town in the Margaret River wine-growing region, and said guns were involved in the killings.

Australians gave up no freedoms when they restricted guns.

ICYMI: April Gun Sales Set A New Record, Thanks Anti-Gun Activists

That's quite a spread you got there... Source?

Defensive Use of Guns

Defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence, although the exact number remains disputed (Cook and Ludwig, 1996; Kleck, 2001a). Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million (Kleck, 2001a), in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008 (BJS, 2010). On the other hand, some scholars point to a radically lower estimate of only 108,000 annual defensive uses based on the National Crime Victimization Survey (Cook et al., 1997). The variation in these numbers remains a controversy in the field. The estimate of 3 million defensive uses per year is based on an extrapolation from a small number of responses taken from more than 19 national surveys. The former estimate of 108,000 is difficult to interpret because respondents were not asked specifically about defensive gun use.

A different issue is whether defensive uses of guns, however numerous or rare they may be, are effective in preventing injury to the gun-wielding crime victim. Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns (i.e., incidents in which a gun was “used” by the crime victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender) have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies (Kleck, 1988; Kleck and DeLone, 1993; Southwick, 2000; Tark and Kleck, 2004). Effectiveness of defensive tactics, however, is likely to vary across types of victims, types of offenders, and circumstances of the crime, so further research is needed both to explore these contingencies and to confirm or discount earlier findings.

Even when defensive use of guns is effective in averting death or injury for the gun user in cases of crime, it is still possible that keeping a gun in the home or carrying a gun in public—concealed or open carry—may have a different net effect on the rate of injury. For example, if gun ownership raises the risk of suicide, homicide, or the use of weapons by those who invade the homes of gun owners, this could cancel or outweigh the beneficial effects of defensive gun use (Kellermann et al., 1992, 1993, 1995). Although some early studies were published that relate to this issue, they were not conclusive, and this is a sufficiently important question that it merits additional, careful exploration.

The number of homicides is affected by improvement in trauma care, leading to less deaths but not necessarily indicating less violence.

500,000 to 2.5 million ? That's quite a spread you got there... Source?

A Chicago public art installation is raising eyebrows in its protest of American gun culture.

The display, Chicago Gun Share Program, depicts an urban bike-sharing station, but instead pretends to offer people the opportunity to rent a rifle.

A sign invites anyone to "unlock and load" a replica high-powered, semi-automatic rifle known as an AR-15.

Activists say they want to raise awareness on how easy it is to "obtain a weapon of war".

The installation in downtown Chicago's Daley Plaza was commissioned by the Brady Center, a gun control advocacy group.

"We hope the Chicago community takes advantage of the opportunity to visit this installation and to learn just how simple it is for an everyday civilian to obtain a weapon of war," Kris Brown and Avery Gardiner, co-presidents of the Brady Center told US media.

The structure, which was erected by Chicago advertising agency The Escape Pod, displays 10 fake AR-15 rifles.

The legally-available weapon has been used in a string of recent mass shooting attacks, including one at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead in February.

Part of the installation includes a sign featuring statistics, including data showing that many of Chicago's gun crimes were committed with weapons that were brought from neighbouring states such as Indiana.

"When you rent a bike it's easy. It's easy to just rent a gun and it's easy to kill a person with it," tourist Omar Bahey Eldin, 12, told NBC Chicago after viewing the exhibit.

Illinois Congressman Mike Quigley, posted a photo of himself visiting the exhibit on Monday, writing "getting a gun shouldn't be as easy as renting a bike - but in many cases, it is".

The Brady Center advocates for banning AR-15 rifles, stricter background checks for all gun sales and the ability for a court to prohibit gun ownership from people who may pose a threat to themselves or others.

The exhibit will be open to the public until 16 May.

How about the 2013 CDC report on Gun Violence authorized by an Obama EO/EA.

Link?

Defensive Use of Guns

Defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence, although the exact number remains disputed (Cook and Ludwig, 1996; Kleck, 2001a). Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million (Kleck, 2001a), in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008 (BJS, 2010). On the other hand, some scholars point to a radically lower estimate of only 108,000 annual defensive uses based on the National Crime Victimization Survey (Cook et al., 1997). The variation in these numbers remains a controversy in the field. The estimate of 3 million defensive uses per year is based on an extrapolation from a small number of responses taken from more than 19 national surveys. The former estimate of 108,000 is difficult to interpret because respondents were not asked specifically about defensive gun use.

A different issue is whether defensive uses of guns, however numerous or rare they may be, are effective in preventing injury to the gun-wielding crime victim. Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns (i.e., incidents in which a gun was “used” by the crime victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender) have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies (Kleck, 1988; Kleck and DeLone, 1993; Southwick, 2000; Tark and Kleck, 2004). Effectiveness of defensive tactics, however, is likely to vary across types of victims, types of offenders, and circumstances of the crime, so further research is needed both to explore these contingencies and to confirm or discount earlier findings.

Even when defensive use of guns is effective in averting death or injury for the gun user in cases of crime, it is still possible that keeping a gun in the home or carrying a gun in public—concealed or open carry—may have a different net effect on the rate of injury. For example, if gun ownership raises the risk of suicide, homicide, or the use of weapons by those who invade the homes of gun owners, this could cancel or outweigh the beneficial effects of defensive gun use (Kellermann et al., 1992, 1993, 1995). Although some early studies were published that relate to this issue, they were not conclusive, and this is a sufficiently important question that it merits additional, careful exploration.

I'm saying that a slow reduction of the number of deaths by guns over time could simply be the result of better trauma and medical care.

Link?

It could be 60,000 for all we know.

The study you linked to is entitled: "Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence". And it does identify a whole lot of priorities given that the data is surprisingly shallow and old on this matter.

That's an even larger spread than what you said ("500,000 to 2.5 million"). It could be 60,000 for all we know.

 Even on the extreme low end of 60k, which would be a stat you would favor, it is far more than the 11k murders with guns that take place, 2016 saw 17k people murdered in total. 60k defensive gun uses vs 17 k murders... more lives were saved with a gun than taken with a gun.

That assumes that 1 (one) life would be taken each and every time a person is robbed or otherwise attacked, if that person doesn't own a gun, AND it also assumes that the same 1 life was saved each and everytime a person used a gun in self-defense...

I see no reason to assume any of that. Take the random attack on a mom and pop shop. A n armed thief does not always kill the cashier. If the cashier pulls a gun on the robber, sometimes he lives, and the robber lives, sometimes one of them dies, sometimes they both die... There's no one-to-one relationship between cases of self-defense use and cases of death/lack of.