Reply #29: The Department of Justice points out that stat.

[happyslug]

The problem is the Department of Justice is comparing apples an oranges, in 1993 62,000 people defended themselves with their guns, but 340,000 guns were stolen (and presumingly used in crime, including the crime of selling the gun without a license). Thus you are NOT comparing violent vs Violent crime or even even non-violent with non-violent crime, but the number of crimes of violence stop by a gun against against the total number of guns stolen (Even if no violence occurred, which is most of the time in such robberies). Given these 1993 figures, one out of every six and half guns involved in a crime (including those stolen AND used to stop a crime) was used to stop a crime.

In 1993 62,000 people defended themselves with their weapons, but 340,000 guns were stolen.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/hvfsdaft.pr

Remember figures don't lie but liars figure. Given the above, the gun in your home has a greater chance of being stolen (340,000 in 1993) then being used to defend yourself (62,000 in 1993). Since theft is a CRIME, you have a five time greater chance of your gun being involved in a crime i.e. theft) then using that gun to defend yourself. If you add in domestic violence cases, these number are even worse. The number of people who defend themselves against someone else in their household get added to the stats cited by the writer, while the total number of incidents go up (i.e. you have to add in the number of people who are harmed by a gun by a family member which is about

Also in 1993, 70% of all murders were done with firearms (70% of about 24,000 or about 17,000). Over a million crimes in 1993 were done with firearms (this includes murders, rape, robberies etc). There are over 2 million stolen hand guns unaccounted for (4.4 million total guns, 60 % of them handguns).
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/guic.pr

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fidc9397.pdf

My point is simple, if you want to see the number you have to look them up, but like any statistic be careful. The statistic may be accurate but all it is measuring is what the stat states, the result may be misleading, for example comparing theft of guns with use of guns. A gun is six times more likely to be stolen then used to defend oneself and that will affect any statistic comparing use to defend with guns used in crime.