ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the effects of guns in the hands of potential victims of crime. It addresses the use of armed private violence for protection and the control of predatory criminal behavior, particularly violent crime and residential burglary. The ownership and use of guns for defensive purposes should have been of considerable interest to scholars in many areas, but has largely been ignored. Gun ownership for self-protection, and defensive gun use, must be distinguished from other forms of forceful activity directed at criminals, vigilantism, or activities of the criminal justice system such as police making arrests. The opposite problem applies to the victim surveys used to estimate the total number of crimes committed with guns. Despite this stated willingness of gun owners to shoot under certain circumstances, most defensive uses of guns do not in fact involve shooting anyone. The rarest, but most serious form of self-defense with a gun is a defensive killing.
