[frongpik]

Before curbing the "gun epidemic" I'd look up how many lives are saved vs how many are unrightfully taken. A proxy for the first number is the number of burglaries - about 1.5 millions per year. A proxy for the second is about 10 thousands - all gun related deaths excluding suicides and internal gang disputes.

[markc]

Burglaries isn’t even remotely a proxy for “lives saved”.

[mgarfias]

CDC estimates 500k defensive gun uses (DGU) per year. Others put that number up over 2M.

Even by the smallest estimates it is a non trivial number.

[umvi]

Again though, defensive gun uses is not a proxy for lives saved. In general adding guns to a situation where murder is not the intent will increase the number of lives lost.

[frongpik]

In a situation where a criminal breaks into someone's house and brandishes a knife, the intent doesn't matter and the criminal shouldn't have agency to decide the outcome. I think this is what rubs me the wrong way about your comment: who gets to decide the outcome - the robber or the one being robbed.

[mgarfias]

It’s a better proxy than burgs. Also, the definition implies that the firearm was used defensively, that is, it’s presence helped avoid a deadly confrontation