Study emphasizes that less than 1% of people with firm weapon access make defensive use in a certain year

Those with access to firearms rarely use their weapons to defend themselves, and instead are much more likely to be exposed to arms violence in other ways, according to a Rutgers Health Study.

An overwhelming majority of firearm users, or about 92%, indicated that they never used their weapons to defend themselves, with less than 1% that they did in the previous year, found a new study by the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center.

“Adults with firearms access are much more likely to be exposed to rifles than to defend themselves with their firearms,” ​​said Michael Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers and main author of the study.

“It is not that defensive use of weapons never happens, but the idea that firearms owners save their own lives or to use that of their loved ones by a firearm in self -defense is simply not supported by the data. If we consider policies, we should weigh the damage that often occurs, not the cases of the defense that happens rare.”

The studythat appears in Jama Network OpenCollected data from a nationally representative sample of 8,009 adults in May 2024 and investigated how often the 3000 had entered into a defensive cannon use with firm weapon access and was exposed to guns, both throughout their lives and within the past year.

More than a third (34.4%) said they had known someone who had died from suicide for firearms. In the past year, 32.7% said they had heard gunshots in their neighborhood. Although only 2.1% of the sample indicated that they had been shot, 59.5% of all cases of defensive use of weapons found in which an individual took place on a observed threat among those who had previously shot themselves.

The researchers also investigated which individuals had probably had defensive use of weapons in their lives. Those with earlier exposure to rifle, who more often wear firearms and who tend to keep and unlock firearms, were more likely to indicate that they had entered into at least one form of defensive cannon use.

“If individuals themselves have experienced rifles themselves whether they have quickly and ready access to their firearms, they may be more susceptible to observing threats and respond by using their firearm,” Anestis said.

“It is important to note that, only because someone else regards a threat, it does not mean that he was one and, if someone is really a threat, that does not always mean that a firearm is needed for defense. If the use of the defensive weapons occurs, we should not necessarily conclude that the result would have been lost.”