Home Alone

In the wake of the Orlando shootings, pundits galore are blathering about one thing or another. One statement made however piqued my interest. One person suggested that we need assault weapons in case of home invasions. How many home invasions are there and how many firearm victimizations are there?

Burglaries occur at a rate of 23-25 per 1,000 people. Firearm victims are roughly 2 out of 1,000 people, or 1/10. The rate of burglaries is going down; the rate of firearm victims also decreased since a peak in 2006. Plus firearm incidents are more likely to be reported to the police in 2014 than anytime since 2005, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (part of the Dept. of Justice). But only 0.5% of all persons experience serious violent crime. Does it seem worthwhile to arm more people when 995 out of every 1,000 won't be faced with any serious violent crime. In fact, only 10 out of every 1,000 will experience any kind of crime. Married people experience 1/3 the level of crime of single people. (So only arm the unmarried!)

Most startling is that there was an earlier report up to 2007 that indicated 65% of the offenders were known by their home invasion victims. So you need an assault weapon to protect yourself in case you're one of the particular 5 people--especially if you're not married--of your 1,000 family and friends, I guess. You know you need to watch out for that weird friend or cousin!