The NRA likes to say that guns don’t kill people—people kill people.  So let’s start with people.  Why do people own guns?  A few reasons:  

• For protection

• For sport 

• For hunting 

• For work (security and law enforcement) 

• For criminal activity

Protection is actually the number one reason.  It’s number one by a lot, in fact.  67 percent of gun owners say the major reason for owning their gun is protection.  One in about every three households holds a gun.  So if you’re looking at the average street in America, this many are armed:

And most of them keep the gun not because they are “gun nuts” as the left sometimes likes to call them.  More likely, they’re family nuts.  Nuts who like to protect themselves and their family.  Which isn’t a nutty thing at all.  

Ask one of these gun owners why they bought their gun, and you’ll get some pretty consistent answers.  Fear of crime.  Fear of personal harm.  Injury and rape.  It’s easy to belittle the idea of owning something so powerful, but there’s a powerful case to be made that these fears are real.  Crime does happen.  Personal harm.  Injury.  Rape.  It’s true—these aren’t impossible events.  

But here’s the thing—actually, two things:  

1. There’s a lot less crime than there used to be—even just 15 or 20 years ago.

2. Guns are not good at protecting you. They actually make your home more dangerous, not less.

These two facts are super-exciting—because if we can convince people who own guns for protection to either not have a need for protection or use something better for protection, we could potentially eliminate the majority of the guns out there.  With fewer guns—and fewer people having access to these lethal weapons—we’d see fewer gun deaths.  Fewer mass shootings.  Fewer murders.  And fewer suicides.  

So let’s take a look at these things.  And see what’s possible. 

First: here's why there’s less to fear than you probably think:  

On almost every measure, this country is way safer than it’s been in decades.  In fact, there’s a greater chance of you getting struck by lightning at some point in your lifetime than of you being murdered in the next year.  And you’re twice as likely to die in a car accident than at the hands of another.  And twice as likely to die of falling.  Get the idea?  Crime isn’t as scary as it used to be—and you should be less afraid of crime than a whole list of other deadly things—like staircases.  Yeah, forget about open-carrying a gun holstered to your hip—you’d be safer if you open-carried a helmet strapped to your head: for going up and down stairs.   

But when the sun goes down and the house is darkened, when you’re lying in bed and the only sound is the sound of your own breathing—it doesn't matter what the crime rate is.  It doesn’t matter that the staircase twenty feet away is a greater threat—you worry.  What if…You wonder.  Am I ready?  

Some fill the room with music. Others lock the door to their room.  Or sleep with the TV on.  And some—well, more than some…we know the number: 75 million Americans sleep with a gun at home.  Loaded in a drawer or locked on an upper shelf, it waits in the dark. 

In fact, 38% of all gun owners say there’s a gun that’s loaded and easily accessible to them at all times when they’re at home.  Even when they’re sleeping. Ready to be snatched at the sound of a broken window or the slam of a car door.  Ready to be fired at a shout in the night.  Or the pitched note of a scream.  Ready for anything.  A protection against fear and harm.  The promise of a good night’s sleep.  

But let’s play through this scenario a bit—to see just how effective a gun is at protecting you and your family.