Gun owners rarely use firearms for self-defense, Rutgers report shows

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Research from the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers School of Public Health found that 92% of gun owners have never used their guns to protect themselves, and less than 1% have done so in the last year. The study also found that people who view the world as unsafe are often distrustful of others and may be more likely to want a gun.

The national study published in the JAMA Network Open, collected data from a diverse group of 8,009 adults. It asked gun owners how often they used their weapons for self-defense and experienced gun violence, both throughout their lives and within the last year .Of the 3,000 respondents, 91.7% reported no history of defensive gun use, despite many experiencing gun violence. Those exposed to gun violence were more likely to report defensive gun use if they carried firearms frequently and stored them loaded and unlocked.

Cohowa Edney of Philadelphia said she never thought about buying a gun, much less using one until her daughter nearly lost her life to gun violence two years ago.

Edney said a gunman shot her 53-year-old daughter five times in the face but she survived.

“It was scary,” Edney said. “She had angels all around her.”

Edney said her first thought was to retaliate. But her second thought was to protect herself and her daughter. That’s when she bought her 9-millimeter handgun.

On a recent Sunday, she attended a gun safety training session at a shooting range in King of Prussia. Edney said she wants to be a responsible gun owner and have more control over her safety. She said the gunman who shot her daughter hasn’t been caught.

“I didn’t know how to handle it because you see on TV all these young boys or kids out in the street being violent,” Edney said. “I had to educate myself.”

Michael Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center, said that most firearm use is for target practice, personal safety and hunting. However, he noted that firearms are more likely to result in suicide, unintentional injuries or theft leading to trafficking rather than intentional harm to others.

“The firearm industry has spent the last several decades really successfully and without any pushback by anyone else, pushed a narrative that the world is a dangerous place, and the way to be safe is with a firearm,” Anestis said. “It’s perfectly understandable for people to want to be safe and to protect themselves and their loved ones and their property, and the way we depict firearms in the media sort of reinforces that narrative.”

At the gun safety training, Edney sat in an hour-long class as part of the requirements to be a member of That Gun Talk club. Participants learned how to properly store firearms in gun safes and use gun locks, and other universal gun safety rules. Edney asked specific questions about how to properly clean and store her firearm at home.

“I have children in the house, so I put it in my safe and lock it up,” she said.

After the classroom period, Edney headed to the range for supervised target practice.

“This is a place where there’s, I think, common ground across the spectrum of folks involved in the story,” Anestis said. “But fortunately, most folks don’t get this kind of training, and most folks don’t store their firearms securely and folks are more and more likely to carry their firearms.”

Anestis cited the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Bruen case, which ruled that the Second Amendment protects the right to carry a loaded handgun in public for self-defense.

“The reality is when people have a firearm on them, they’re more likely to perceive threats in ambiguous situations than people who don’t have a firearm on them,” Anestis said. “And so, we’ve got a situation where people who are not trained are carrying firearms around, and seeing threats where they might not be and responding more aggressively than they otherwise would.”

Anestis said that self-defense firearm policies shouldn’t be prioritized since they represent a minor aspect of the overall issue.

“We owe it to everybody across this country who are deciding whether or not to have a firearm in their home, to let them make informed choices based off of actual data,” Anestis said.