Armed and Dangerous
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"It is at least some evidence that armed citizens abort or prevent at least some crime. That 40% of the sample had at some time decided not to do a crime because the intended victim was carrying a gun is additional evidence favoring the same point." (Armed and Considered Dangerous - Page 155)

"The felons in this survey were clearly concerned about encounters with armed victims. Most felons agreed that "a smart criminal always tried to find out if his victim is armed. In general, encounters with armed victims seemed to be about as worrisome to these men as encounters with the police. Confrontations with armed victims were a fairly frequent occurrence for these men. About two fifths had run into an armed victim at least once; about one third had been scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by one; about two fifths had decided at least once in their lives not to commit a crime because they knew or suspected that the victim was armed; about 80% had had at least some experience with an armed victim; either directly or vicariously, through the experiences of their associates." (ACD Page 158 159)

"Four fifths agreed that "a smart criminal always tries to find out if his victim is armed," and three fifths agreed that "most criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police." About two fifths of the sample reported at least one armed victim encounter at some time in their careers; just over one third said that they had personally been "scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim." About two fifths reported having decided at least once in their lives not to commit a crime because they had reason to suspect that the intended victim was armed. This result makes it clear that at least some crimes are prevented by gun wielding victims." (ACD Page 15)

"In general, such evidence as exists on crime deterrence by private weaponry does not support the argument that guns are useless in deterring crime. The evidence does make it quite plain that most crime occurs in circumstances where the victim would have little or no chance to use a gun, even if one were possessed. On the other hand, in the relatively few cases in which there is opportunity to defend oneself with a gun, the evidence suggests that one is somewhat less likely to be successfully victimized if one is armed than if not." (Under The Gun Page 141)

"A long and hotly debated issue in the area of firearms and crime control concerns the protective efficacy of private gun ownership. Here the issue is whether armed citizens represent any deterrent to the commission of criminal acts. The assumption that they do not has long been an article of faith in the conventional wisdom about guns and gun control; considerable evidence that they do has recently been published. There is evidence, for example, that the odds to a felon in confronting an armed victim are approximately as great as the odds of being apprehended, convicted and sentenced for the crime; there is also evidence that a felon is at least likely to be shot to death by a civilian as he is to be slain by the police." (ACD Page 11)

"There is some evidence that the risk to a home robber or to a burglar striking an occupied residence of being shot and wounded or killed by the intended victim is on the same order of magnitude as the risk to the same criminal of being apprehended, convicted, and imprisoned for the crime (both probabilities appear to be on the order of 1 to 2%). It is thus plausible that much crime is deterred because those who would otherwise commit it fear the possibility of being shot, just as it is plausible that the fear of serving time for one's offense also prevents some crime." (Under The Gun - Page 14)

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Wright, James and Peter Rossi. Armed And Considered Dangerous: A Survey Of Felons And Their Firearms. NY: Aldine, 1986. Referred to as ACD. A highly abbreviated version of this work is The Armed Criminal In America: A Survey Of Incarcerated Felons. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing  ______, Peter H. Rossi and Kathleen Daly. Under The Gun: Weapons, Crime, And Violence In America. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine, 1983. Referred to as UTG. Revised edition of Weapons, Crime, and Violence in America: A Literature Review And Research Agenda. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1981.

The following books also contain information on this topic:

Kates, Don B. and Gary Kleck, with James R. Boen and John K. Lattimer. The Great American Gun Debate: Essays On Firearms & Violence. San Francisco, CA: Pacific Research Institute For Public Policy, 1997.

Kleck, Gary. Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control. NY: Aldine de Gruyer, 1997. Revision of Point Blank: Guns and Violence In America. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991.

Lott, John R. More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Reiss, Albert J. and Jeffrey A. Roth (editors). Understanding And Preventing Violence: Panel On The Understanding And Control Of Violent Behavior. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1993. A report of the National Research Council, a division of the National Academy of Sciences.