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Guns & America: The Good Guy with a Gun

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” We unpack the facts and fiction.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” We unpack the facts and fiction.

We’ve heard it from the NRA, the GOP and, lately, President Trump.

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

According to a recent Gallup poll, 30 percent of U.S. adults say they own a firearm. And according to the Pew Research Center, three-fourths of those gun owners bought their firearms for self-defense.

But researchers at Harvard recently found that people defended themselves with their guns in less than one percent of violent crimes.

If the chances that you’ll save yourself with a gun are so rare… why does the “Good Guy with a Gun” myth persist?

And what is it like to be part of that less-than-one-percent? We explore the issue with the reporting collaborative Guns & America.

Produced by Paige Osburn, Lisa Dunn & A.C. Valdez.

For more, visit https://the1a.org.

© 2019 WAMU 88.5 – American University Radio.

Copyright 2019 WAMU 88.5

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