Yes and no. The FBI records annually what is classified by police investigators as "justifiable homicides". The latest edition for 2005 can be found at: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/expanded_information/murder_homicide. html For other years you'll have to root around amongst the links at: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm
This isn't a complete source and reflects only events immediately obvious to police on first impression investigation that the shooting was justified. So, if a private citizens witness a criminal shooting a police officer and see a private citizen pick up the officer's gun to defend him by killing the criminal shooter, then the police investigator will likely classify the killing of the criminal as justifiable. First impressions are important because classifications are not changed in the FBI accounts once submitted. There results in a serious undercount of justifiable homicides by private citizens (perhaps less so for police). Professor Gary Kleck has concluded that the number of civilian legal defensive homicides (CLDHs) with guns per year is typically 7.1% to 12.9% of the reported murder rate. Part of the reason these CLDHs are under-reported by the FBI is that the FBI bases its reports on initial classification of the homicide and Police tend to charge individuals unless there is clear evidence the killing was justified. Some idea of the scope of this under-reporting is seen from Time magazine from their article "Death by Gun" July 17, 1989. That article reported 199 murders (charges since trials had not yet been held) and 14 CLDHs (6.6% of gun homicides) for the week of 1-7 May. A year later, Time followed-up their report with the article "Death by Gun: One Year Later", Time, May 14, 1990, to see how the courts had handled the cases. In the follow-up article Time reported that there were 28 CLDHs (13.1% of the tracked gun homicides), an increase of 100% on the original report with at least 43 cases not yet adjudicated at the one-year later follow-up. It would appear the US murder rate is about 10% too high and justifiable homicides should get most of these corrections. I don't know of any one who makes an effort to estimate the actually number of justifiable homicides and keep records. Obviously, there would have to be a retrospective component to such calculations since investigations and resolution of cases take time. Let me mention that the CDC keeps data available through web forms at: http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate9.html and http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html But you can't get the same numbers as the FBI and local police report. For example, the FBI reported in 2004 police and private citizen justifiable homicides total (see 2004 CIUS Tables 2.15 and 2.16) 431 + 229 = 666 whereas the CDC shows 372 for that year. Phil -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Autumn Rose Press Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 12:29 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ucla. Edu Subject: Source Query Is there yet a single source of national statistical information on police and defensive citizen use of firearms? Sorry if this is redundant, I'm new. Thanks, jh _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others. -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.24/668 - Release Date: 2/4/2007 1:30 AM -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.24/668 - Release Date: 2/4/2007 1:30 AM _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
