By Dean Rieck

Recently, a liberal friend of mine said that people who want a gun for protection are just plain crazy. My friend’s argument was that you’re a lot more likely to die in a car accident or a fire. The likelihood that you’ll be killed by a burglar who breaks into your home or a hoodlum who jumps you in a dark parking lot, my friend said, are about the same as getting struck by lightning. So thinking you need a gun means you’re afraid of an unlikely event and are therefore irrational.

I disagreed but couldn’t quote any statistics to counter the argument. And I had to admit, the idea of actually being killed by a bad guy did seem pretty remote. But I got to wondering what the odds really are, so I did a little research. And what I found was startling.

The National Safety Council is a nonprofit public service organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. On their web site (www.nsc.org), they publish a chart with the “odds” of dying by various means. You’re probably familiar with the concept of odds. If you flip a coin, your odds of getting heads are 1 out of 2. If you randomly choose a card from a full deck, your odds of getting the ace of spades are 1 out of 52. The lower the number, the more likely it is to happen. The higher the number, the less likely it is to happen.

One column in the NSC chart gives the odds of dying in a particular way over the course of your lifetime. So, for example, the lifetime odds of being struck and killed by lightening are 1 out of 56,439. That’s a high number, so it’s not too likely.

January 1, 2006
New York Post (republished on Lott's blog)

By Dr. John R. Lott, Jr.

What should a woman do when attacked by a criminal? Should she behave passively? Use pepper spray? A gun?

Most people hope they'll get lucky and never be attacked. For those who want to think ahead, there is Paxton Quigley's new book, "Stayin' Alive."

It turns out that pepper spray may not do you a lot of good when it is raining or snowing. A woman is just as likely to disable herself as the attacker when it's windy or when using the spray indoors.

The advantage of a gun is that it is ideal for keeping the criminal far away from the victim. And the victim isn't responsible for restraining the criminal, as police officers are when arresting suspects. A woman simply wants to keep the criminal away from her.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.