Guns and Self-defense

Alphecca has a post on guns and self-defense. He cites a couple examples where the Violence Policy Center says that people who own guns for self defence are often killed with their own gun, and that owning a gun created a false sense of safety. Jeff says this is the result of an improper use of the gun.

He's right. When someone is killed with their own gun by an assailant, it is quite often due to misplaced trust--the victims placed their trust in the threat presented by the gun in their hands and not in their ability to use the gun in their hands. When the threat was insufficient to stop the assailant, they were unprepared to take the next step required and actually fire the gun in self-defense. Or if they did fire the gun, they tried not to hurt the assailant too badly and just wound him enough to stop him. WRONG! When the use of deadly force is necessary to defend oneself, nothing less will suffice. If you have the opportunity to do so, point the gun at the attacker and say "STOP!". If the attacker does not stop immediately, shoot to kill. If you do not have the time to warn them off, just shoot to kill. And remember: "Two in the body and one in the head guarantees they're really dead."

:: UPDATE ::

There is more on this subject at The Smallest Minority. My same comments apply.