Another gun thread...

[popeyespappy]

In many cases yes they do.

That's one example. Does it represent the majority of cases, or is it newsworthy for being anomalous?

This incident was typical in that an untrained civilian with only a basic familiarity with firearms was able to successfully use a gun to defend against a violent crime without injuring either herself or any innocent bystanders. Several studies have concluded that guns are the most effective way to defend against violent crime. The paper Self-defense with guns: The consequences published in the Journal of Criminal Justice concluded that women that use guns to defend against rape are 2.5 times less likely to be injured than those that don’t resist and four times less likely to be injured than those that resist by any other means.

Defensive gun uses (DGUs) are more common than many here would like to admit. At least that’s what the data tells us. In 1994 the Department of Justice sponsored a study in which the results were published in a paper titled Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms. It concluded that the number of DGUs in America ran into the millions annually. The estimates from similar studies range from hundreds of thousands into the millions.