When guns prevent crime

I know from experience that when you  bring up the idea that a gun can be used to prevent crime, you'll be laughed out of the discussion.  Gun Control Advocates will smack down the idea that gun owners use guns to stop crime as if it's believing in Big Foot, Unicorns or Eskimos.  

Yet, like so many things that seem associated with progressive agendas, there is a Himalayan sized pile of evidence that the Gun Control Advocates seem to ignore.  There's been a bit of a buzz over the last few months regarding a study that suggested a whopping 2.5 million cases (that's million, with six zeroes, or .00001 of Bill Gate's net worth in dollars) in which American gun owners used their firearms to defend themselves.  

I must admit that I don't do stats because I know stats can be easily manipulated to say whatever.  The push-back by Gun Control Advocates seems to be that such a figure is grossly inflated.  The problem is, in all the criticisms I've read, nobody suggests what they think it should be.  They just say it's an exaggeration, it's impossible, it's too high, it's overblown, but they never say what they feel it probably is.  And that got me to thinking, as I am wont to do.

Let's assume it is exaggerated.  Let's assume guns weren't used to defend against a crime 2.5 million times in a year in America.  How many times do we imagine they were used to defend against a crime?  2 million times?  1 million times?  Half a million times?  Let's just say a quarter of a million times.  250,000 times guns were used in self defense in a year.  That's a far cry from 2.5 million.  That is crazy off the study.  That number is nowhere near the claim made by Gun Rights Advocates.  

And yet, it's 250,000 times guns were used for self-defense.  Even if we drop it down to a paltry 25,000 times that guns were used for defense, that's still 25,000 Americans who are alive and happy and not victims of a crime, perhaps a violent one, all due to a gun.  I mean, that's a lot of people.  25,000 people not victims of crimes, be they violent or not, isn't bad.  

Think on that.  Even if the study is a whopping .01% of the truth, that's still tens of thousands who are not victims of a crime.  Given that around twice as many Americans are murdered by guns a year as die of HIV/AIDS (that would make it around 12,000/year give or take), that's still half as many killed by guns as crimes prevented.  That's assuming an epic fail on the study's part of missing the reality by 99%.  Sure, many of those would not be violent crimes.  But even so, what in the world are Gun Control Advocates doing acting like you just declared faith in a flat earth when you bring up guns being used for self-defense?  

What is one reason why am I more skittish about the Left than the Right, about progressives more than conservatives?  Because this line of argument seems to be common from top down and side to side when it comes to various progressive causes.  What would be laughed off the map if done by some wacky right winger in the back hills of Montana in his parents' basement, is often the line of arguing you here from mainline progressive pundits and leadership.  Whether #MeToo or abortion or transgender or gay marriage or open border immigration or tearing down Confederate memorials or gun control or whatever, there always seem to be this giant pile of facts and data that are not only ignored, but any who appeal to those are mocked at best, attacked a worst.

Forgive me, but if your entire argument is best summed up with 'please focus on the molehill and ignore the mountain range behind it', there's a good chance you'll lose me every time.