Thursday, October 22, 2009

Here's a Stat I'd Like to See Referenced

While doing some poking around during a gun discussion elsewhere on the webs, I ran across this:

Because 75% of all cops who are shot in the line of duty… Are Shot With Their OWN GUN!
Thing is, I can't find anything on this.

Self defense instructors (in particular Bob Taylor) all over the 'net trumpet this, but danged if I can find it anywhere.

UPDATE - whoo boy, it gets better and better:
And owning a gun won't help you. In fact, according to the latest FBI statistics . just owning a gun can actually get you killed. Because, while 75% of cops who get shot in the line of duty get shot with their own gun, over 95% of civilians who get shot get shot with their own gun!
Those bolded parts? Not links, just emphasis. Sounds like deceptive trade practices to me.

I ran across all this trying to refute the old "you'll have your gun taken away and used against you" meme, but found this and had an attack of Internet ADD.

.

10 comments:

Rustmeister said...

BTW, I didn't link any of that stuff on purpose.

Robb Allen said...

I think the reasoning behind those lines is based on the fact that 87.3% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Anonymous said...

Only 62.7% of the time though Robb.

Top of the Chain said...

And you have a 1 in 5 chance of finding some made up statistic

Alan said...

It certainly doesn't pass the smell test, does it.

The Duck said...

That was an old reference, on cops. Their were many in a hostage events, did surrender their guns. They learned the hard way,BG would get the drop on the partner usually, and the other cop would surrender his weapon, hopefully most have been trained not to do that any more, Car accidents kill more cops than guns do. 95% Civilian shot with own weapon?? not likely.

Ace said...

Stats of LEOs killed here:
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/killed/2008/data/table_13.html

ishida said...

Google tells me...

That quote is from a horribly marketed "disarming techniques" tape.

There is little to no truth in any of the advertisement.

If someone ACTUALLY used that in an argument, you HAVE to link it!

Linoge said...

Unfortunately, the sad thing is that people will believe that gos-se, and continue to propagate it themselves, without the faintest desire to find out if it is factual or not.

Of course, those people are pretty much lost to us anywise, but it still saddens me to some extent.

Sean D Sorrentino said...

ok, here's the answer.

all data from 1999-2008 inclusive, links for each bit of data.

530-Total officers feloniously killed

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/killed/2008/data/table_27.html

486-Total shot by firearm

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/killed/2008/data/table_27.html

44-total shot with own weapon

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/killed/2008/data/table_14.html

44/486=9.05% of all officers who are shot are shot with own weapon.