Leading Causes of Death in the United States

by the National Center for Health Statistics
All Causes: 2,169,518
Heart Disease: 720,862
Cancers: 514,657
Strokes: 143,481
Chronic pulmonary diseases: 90,650
Accidents: 89,347
Pneumonia and influenza: 77,860
Diabetes: 48,951
Motor Vehicle: 43,536
Suicide: 30,810
HIV Infections (AIDS): 29,555
Homicide and legal intervention: 26,513
Cirrhosis and other liver diseases: 25,429
Falls: 12,662
Poisoning (solid, liquid, gas): 6,434
Drowning (incl. water transport drownings): 4,685
Suffocation (mechanical, ingestion): 4,195
Fires and flames: 4,120
Surgical/Medical misadventures: 2,473
Other Transportation (excl. drownings): 2,086
Natural/Environmental factors: 1,453
Firearms: 1,441

*these statistics show that the least amount of deaths are by firearms

http://www.gac.20m.com/Firearms.html

Police and Criminals

Police Cannot Protect And Are Not Required To Protect Every Individual

• The courts have consistently ruled that the police do not have an obligation to protect individuals, only the public in general. For example, in Warren v. D.C. the court stated "courts have without exception concluded that when a municipality or other governmental entity undertakes to furnish police services, it assumes a duty only to the public at large and not to individual members of the community."
• Former Florida Attorney General Jim Smith told Florida legislators that police responded to only about 200,000 of 700,000 calls for help (28.57%) to Dade County authorities. Smith was asked why so many citizens in Dade County were buying guns and he said, "They damn well better, they've got to protect themselves."
• The Department of Justice found that in 1989, there were 168,881 crimes of violence which were not responded to by police within 1 hour.
• Currently, there are about 150,000 police officers on duty at any one time to protect a population of more than 250 million Americans or almost 1,700 citizens per officer.Criminals Fear Armed Citizens More Than The Police

In 1985, the National Institute for Justice reported that:

• 60% of felons polled agreed that "a criminal is not going to mess around with a victim he knows is armed with a gun."
• 57% of felons polled agreed that "criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police."
• 74% of felons polled agreed that "one reason burglars avoid houses when people are at home is that they fear being shot during the crime."
• Kennesaw, GA. In 1982, this suburb of Atlanta passed a law requiring heads of households to keep at least one weapon in the house. The residential burglary rate subsequently dropped 89% in Kennesaw, compared to the modest 10.4% drop in Georgia as a whole.
• Ten years later (1991), the residential burglary rate in Kennesaw was still 72% lower than it had been in 1981, before the law was passed.
• Orlando, FL. In 1966-67, the media highly publicized a safety course which taught Orlando women how to use guns. The result: Orlando's rape rate dropped 88% in 1967, whereas the rape rate remained constant in the rest of Florida and the nation.

Real Cause
America fails to incarcerate violent criminals. In 1960, 738 criminals were sent to prison for every 1,000 violent crimes, but by 1980, the number of criminals sent to prison per 1,000 violent crimes dropped to 227, and the crime rate tripled. Over 60,000 criminals convicted of violent crime every year- murder, rape, robbery or aggravated assault- are not sent to prison. Of America's 4.3 million convicted criminals, only 26% are in prison. The remaining 74% are serving "sentences" of parole or probation, free on the streets. Criminals who are incarcerated are freed too early, serving on average only one-third of their sentences.

* All five relevant Supreme Court decisions have recognized that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. No Supreme Court decision has ever held this right to be "collective."
* Report by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution "what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner."
* "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

http://www.gac.20m.com/Firearms.html

Self- Defense and Crime

States with favorable concealed carry laws have lower rates of crime than states with restrictive concealed carry laws.
Overall, the homicide rate for states with favorable carry laws is 31% lower, and the robbery rate is 36% lower, than for states with restrictive concealed carry laws. States which have recently changed their laws have experienced reductions in homicide rates. Since 1987, when Florida enacted a favorable CCW law, its homicide rate has dropped 22%, even while the national rate has risen 15%. Only .007% of Florida CCW permits have been revoked because of a crime after licensure.

Self- Defense
There are more than 2.1 million protective uses of firearms each year, far more than the number of violent criminal gun uses reported by the FBI. Most self-defense uses do not involve discharge of a firearm. In only 0.1% of defensive gun uses is a criminal killed, and in only 1% is a criminal wounded. A Department of Justice-sponsored survey found that 40% of felons had chosen not to commit at least one specific crime for fear their victims were armed, and 34% admitted being scared off or shot at by armed victims. U. S. Department of Justice victimization surveys show that the protective use of a firearm lessens the chance that a rape, robbery or assault attempt will be successfully completed and also reduces the chance of injury to the intended victim.

Background Checks Do Not Disarm The Violent Criminal Population

• 93% of handgun predators had obtained their most recent guns "off-the-record"
• they can easily get fake IDs or use surrogate buyers, known as "straw purchasers," to buy their guns

http://www.gac.20m.com/reasons2own.htm