Is having a gun a smart way to defend yourself ? from Quora


 


This has some freight to it.  This is in response to a Quora question. I'll answer at the bottom.

Is having a gun a smart way to defend yourself?

About five years ago, my housemate walked into my room, grabbed me, and raped me. He was easily able to physically overpower me without any effort. I’m about 90lbs give or take.

After he got up off me, he went over to the other end of the room where a knife was sitting out. He picked it up and was on the way back to either kill me, rape me again, or both. I reached into my nightstand, pulled out my Glock, and shot him in the neck.

Unfortunately he survived, but it saved my life.

In alternate scenarios I’ve been assaulted by men or even larger women twice my size. My Glock stopped them in their tracks without a single bullet fired.

Fact: Every year, people in the United States use guns to defend themselves against criminals an estimated 2,500,000 times – more than 6,500 people a day, or once every 13 seconds. Of these instances, 15.7% of the people using firearms defensively stated that they “almost certainly” saved their lives by doing so.


But to answer the question, the answer is no... Because the question poster stops with "having a gun". Just by having a gun, owning one, doesn't mean anything.  You've got to have training and the right mindset. It is the 'stop with ownership' group that is the cause of negligent discharges or unauthorized uses. 


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