It is well known that many of the violent crimes in the U.S. are committed with firearms. Less adequately documented is the frequency with which victims use guns in self-defense. We used National Crime Victims Information survey data to examine incidents where victims employed guns against offenders. Between 1987 and 1990 there were an estimated 258,459 incidents of firearm defense. An annual mean of 64,615.
Victims used firearms in 0.18% of all crimes recorded by the survey and in 0.83% of violent offenses.
Our conclusion? Firearm self- defense is very rare compared to gun crimes.

• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed

The argument that the Second Amendment conveyed an individual right when it was originally ratified is fairly strong. Where it becomes compelling is after the Civil War, when Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which applied the Bill of Rights against the states. The legislative history makes clear that, in so doing, the Radical Republicans controlling Congress were particularly outraged by terror campaigns in the South directed against Repubican sympathizers and former slaves by the Klu Klux Klan and similar organizations. Laws in southern states prohibited former slaves and others from owning weapons with which to defend themselves, and the Radical Republicans made clear that they viewed this as a violation of the Constitution. Congress had specifically in mind (among other things) the goal of giving individuals the right to keep and bear arms so they could deter and if necessary defend themselves against these threats.

The issue is, of course, politically charged -- as your posts demonstrate. But the history is a no-brainer.

"...When I was just a baby, my mama told me, "Son,
Always be a good boy; don't ever play with guns."
But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die."

Johnny Cash

• http://www.bowlingforcolumbine.com/

• http://www.leoslyrics.com/listlyrics.php?hid=2XP5GiOtjOU%3D