TECH CENTRAL STATION

911 Is a Joke… or Is It? Let’s Find Out
By David Kopel
Published 01/05/2005

A major new report by National Academies of Science concludes that there is not enough empirical data to determine whether gun control enhances public safety, or whether gun ownership deters crime. The report calls for further data-gathering on firearms injuries. We suggest that gathering a type of related data is equally critical: how often 911 calls result in the interruption of a crime.

The issue is central to the gun debate. The anti-gun lobbies, while sometimes conceding that people can be allowed to have sporting guns, vehemently opposes gun ownership for personal protection. The lobbies insist that crime victims should rely on 911 instead. For a disarmed victim, the police response to 911 can literally be a matter of life or death. If the data show that 911 won’t save your life when you’re attacked by a criminal, then it would be difficult for government to claim the moral authority to disarm victims.

We searched for information on the percentage of times a crime-in-progress is interrupted following a call to 911. And we searched for information about how often citizens are protected from harm by police intervention.
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