[lifeisstillgood]

Ok so UK resident here. Oddly able to own a shotgun (not pump). what is a standard slug? I presumed birdshot would mean the "slug" (big metal thing fired out end of gun) would be replaced by the "birdshot" (tiny metal balls designed to spread and so make hitting bird (plus lots of other things) easier.?

Sidenote: It's unlikely in US as there seems to be a political objection to collating gun stats but are there any stats on threat models in "home defence"? I presume the main one is armed burglary but am interested in how often, where gun is kept vs where it was needed etc etc

[alricb]

Normal shotgun rounds are filled with a number of pellets; the smaller the pellet, the more you can fit. Birdshot: small pellets in large number, Buckshot: large-ish pellets in small number. A slug is a massive (18.5 mm diameter for 12 gauge) single projectile used in a shotgun shell.

[lifeisstillgood]

I got that - I just did not understand the implied "birdshot and slug at the same time"

[robbedpeter]

Every time a firearm is used in a situation involving police, such as home defense, the data is recorded. It's not always shared, though. Gun use in defensive situations seems to happen about a tenth to an eighth as often as criminal use. This includes gang related shootings, which account for 15% of the total, and there are issues with ascribing intent and motive, so the data has a lot of confounding factors. It's so bad that it's nigh on impossible to make any useful conclusions.

The best bet in self defense is to find a competent professional trainer. Someone with long military or law enforcement experience that isn't an asshole. If you're really into it you can get the same training that Keanu Reeves got and turn yourself into John Wick. That's a hell of a party trick.

[NoImmatureAdHom]

>>Gun use in defensive situations seems to happen about a tenth to an eighth as often as criminal use.

I think you mean instances where a shot is actually fired? I believe there are 40-50,000 self-defense uses per year in the U.S., a nation of ~330,000,000, though that does not necessarily mean a shot was fired [0]

0: https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fv9311.pdf p. 12

[lifeisstillgood]

>>> the data is recorded. It's not always shared, though.

But that not sharing is the whole politics problem, abs makes any attempt at sensible discussion impossible. You have just rolled off some stats ... but knowing there is missing data. Is that missing data important? Does it exclude rural areas so we have mostly urban stats so can only decide on urban problems?

[robbedpeter]

Exactly - the margin of error for any of these stats could be 99% or 1% and we just don't have a good way to parse it. A lot is self report surveys, or dodgy guesstimates from activists from either side, so yeah - sensible discussion is difficult. I find it useful to look at it from a min max perspective - given an extreme from either end, what is reasonable in protecting safety, liberty, and other interests, and what would a proactive vs reactive policy look like, and so on.

If situation A,B,C...Z, what does the range of appropriate policies look like, and how can you translate that to different regions, cultures, population densities. One size doesn't fit all, but maybe there's a broad, dynamic way to work with these things that is really boring and sensible that won't leave people feeling their rights or safety are being trampled.