How Often Do Citizens Use Guns to Stop Violence? - Just Facts

How Often Do Citizens Use Guns to Stop Violence? - Just Facts
"In a New York Times column entitled “How to Reduce Shootings,” Nicholas Kristof writes, “It is true that guns are occasionally used to stop violence. But contrary to what the National Rifle Association suggests, this is rare. One study by the Violence Policy Center found that in 2012 there were 259 justifiable homicides by a private citizen using a firearm.”
That statement grossly misleads by pretending that firearms only stop violence when they are used to kill criminals.
As explained by the National Academies of Sciences in a 300+ page analysis of firearms studies, “effective defensive gun use need not ever lead the perpetrator to be wounded or killed. 
Rather, to assess the benefits of self-defense, one needs to measure crime and injury averted.
The particular outcome of an offender is of little relevance.”
...The purpose of having a gun for defense is not to kill criminals but to prevent them from killing or harming others. 
...In other words, people who use a gun for defense rarely harm (much less kill) criminals. This is because criminals often back off when they discover their targets are armed..."
Read on!