Scholars debate numbers of 'defensive gun uses' in U.S.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Tom Beiting was heading for work one day when, realizing he had left something at home, he returned to his apartment and found a stranger walking out.

The man held a portable television in one arm and a case of beer in the other.

The intruder dropped the items and reached for a knife tucked in his pants pocket. Beiting, a criminal-defense lawyer, also packed a weapon - a .380-caliber pistol clipped to his belt under his suit jacket.

Pointing the gun at the man's face, Beiting yelled, "Freeze!" The man froze.

"His eyes got huge. … Then he actually wet his pants," said Beiting, of Newport, Ky.

Every day in America, a civilian brandishes a gun to stop a crime. But, you wonder, just how often?

OFCC PAC Commentary:
Isn't it the anti-gun, anti-self-defense bunch who are always touting new gun control laws on the idea that it's worth it if it saves even one life?

So what difference does it make to them if the annual number of defensive gun uses is Gary Kleck's 2.5 million, or the NRA's "over 2 million", or even an ridiculously low 60,000 per year, as the anti-self-defense extremists claim?

Concealed carry reform saves lives. Hundreds of thousands of lives? Millions of lives? One life? To use the anti-self-defense extremists' own logic, it shouldn't much matter.

(Again, from the news article):
"Still, the debate matters a lot to Beiting, the Kentucky lawyer who pulled his gun on the knife-toting burglar.

Beiting, who had a state permit to carry the pistol, held the frightened man at bay until police came.

After that episode, pro-gun groups phoned Beiting with requests that he endorse their political efforts or agree to be their public spokesman. He turned them down.

"Look, I'm not a right-wing nut; I'm a criminal-defense lawyer," said Beiting, a former police chief well-trained in using firearms. "I urge everyone who doesn't like being around guns ... don't own one.

"But I don't think anyone has the right to say I can't be allowed to do what I did."

Nor do we, Mr. Beiting, nor do we.