Statistics can be dangerous

Salt Lake Tribune

Sometimes statistics are more dangerous than guns. Jane Wolfarth (Forum, Nov. 25) incorrectly uses statistics to imply that just owning a gun is dangerous. She quotes from the Journal of Trauma that there are 22 criminal, suicidal and unintentional shootings for every shooting made in self-defense.
Even if this statistic is true, it is misleading because very rarely are guns fired in self-defense. More often guns are simply wielded in self-defense situations, and this is usually enough to deter an attacker. So that doubtful statistic used by Wolfarth does not take into consideration the millions of times guns are used defensively but are not fired.
One study by Gary Kleck, a criminologist at Florida State University, found that guns are used in self-defense 2 million times per year. The Department of Justice did its own study and came up with 1.5 million defensive gun uses per year. Dozens of other studies have shown the number to be anywhere between 800,000 and 2.5 million times per year.
Also, if the logic in her dubious assertion that the presence of a gun in the home triples the risk of homicide and increases the risk of suicide five-fold were followed in regard to other causes of death, then your risk of death by an automobile accident increases twenty-fold by simply owning an automobile.

Wendy Mair
Heber City .utah