Weapon involvement in home invasion crimes (JAMA Medical Journal Review)

[Quarterbore]

Following is a abstract of an Article from the Journal of the American Medical Association:

Weapon involvement in home invasion crimes.

Kellermann AL, Westphal L, Fischer L, Harvard B.

Center for Injury Control, Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, Atlanta, Ga 30322, USA.

OBJECTIVE--To study the epidemiology of home invasion crimes and determine the frequency with which firearms are used to resist these crimes. DESIGN--Prospective case series. SETTING--Atlanta, Ga (population 402,877). METHODS--Between June 1 and August 31, 1994; Atlanta Police Department reports were screened to identify every case of unwanted entry into an occupied, single-family dwelling. Cases of sexual assault and incidents that involved cohabitants were excluded. RESULTS--A total of 198 cases were identified during the study interval. Half (99 cases) involved forced entry into the home. The victim and offender were acquainted in one third of cases. A firearm was carried by one or more offenders in 32 cases (17%). Seven offenders (3.5%) carried knives. In 42% of cases, the offender fled without confronting the victim. Victims who avoided confrontation were more likely to lose property but much less likely to be injured than those who were confronted by the offender. Resistance was attempted in 62 cases (31%), but the odds of injury were not significantly affected by the method of resistance. Forty cases (20%) resulted in one or more victims' being injured, including six (3%) who were shot. No one died. Three victims (1.5%) employed a firearm in self-protection. All three escaped injury, but one lost property. CONCLUSION--A minority of home invasion crimes result in injury. Measures that increase the difficulty of forced entry or enhance the likelihood of detection could be useful to prevent these crimes. Although firearms are often kept in the home for protection, they are rarely used for this purpose.

PMID: 7769769 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[Quarterbore]

Regarding the abstract above, there are a few points I think should be noted...

A home invasion happens very fast and if the victom of this home invasion is not prepared they will not have time to use a weapon to defend themselves. The other point is that as home invasions do become more prevelent the attackers have become more violent.

A person needs to do a reality check when preparing including their wilingness to use a weapon to defend oneself and a willingness to use this weapon. If a person is unwilling or not confident they will be able to use the weapon to kill an attacker then these people should not purchase or plan on a weapon as part of their defense.

On the contrary, once the decision is made to purchase and use a weapon a home owner needs to prepare themself for the possibility that they may need to use this weapon. At the point where someone is breaking down your door or coming at you with a knife or gun is a time to use this weapon to save the lives of your family and yourself and not for debating about the use of the weapon.

I will be adding more pages on weapons soon but I figured it an opportunity to share some of my own bias into the discussion.