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Innocent Bystanders killed during self-defense shootings?

kubel

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Does anyone know where I can find the number of innocent bystanders that are killed by a law abiding citizen shooting their firearms in self defense?

I'm not looking for police shootings, not looking for felony shootings (drive-by shootings, criminals missing, etc...), not looking for ALL accidental shootings (like where that cop misidentified his son as an intruder and shot him)- just looking for law abiding citizens shooting at bad guys in self-defense, but missing and killing an innocent victim.

The closest statistic I can find find was from the Brady Bunch, and it's very weak. It was based on a 12-18 month study of 3 cities done in 1998. They said there were 13 self-defense shootings and 54 unintentional shootings (not including suicide or felony shootings). They didn't mention whether the shootings led to death, and it's not mentioned how many of the unintentional shootings were done in the course of self-defense. I would imagine most were as a result of negligent discharge.

Anyone know where I can find more relevant statistics?
 

j4l

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Does anyone know where I can find the number of innocent bystanders that are killed by a law abiding citizen shooting their firearms in self defense?

I'm not looking for police shootings, not looking for felony shootings (drive-by shootings, criminals missing, etc...), not looking for ALL accidental shootings (like where that cop misidentified his son as an intruder and shot him)- just looking for law abiding citizens shooting at bad guys in self-defense, but missing and killing an innocent victim.

The closest statistic I can find find was from the Brady Bunch, and it's very weak. It was based on a 12-18 month study of 3 cities done in 1998. They said there were 13 self-defense shootings and 54 unintentional shootings (not including suicide or felony shootings). They didn't mention whether the shootings led to death, and it's not mentioned how many of the unintentional shootings were done in the course of self-defense. I would imagine most were as a result of negligent discharge.

Anyone know where I can find more relevant statistics?


Heck, I work for the Dept. of Health,/Vital Statistics, and we put numbers to every mundane thing you can think of. I've never seen any such statistic gathered, anywhere, myself. It's just not the kind of statistic that is gathered, in that form, even on most police/incident reports, even.
For example, if a police incident report of an otherwise legit self-defense shooting ends up resulting in an un-intended shooting (miss and hit someone, ricochet, over-pen, etc.) it doesnt normally end up being reported or written up as such.The reports usually end up being X # persons shot. An individual officer may include in their notes or even the report, that one or more other folks found to have been shot may not have been the INTENDED victims,but thats about it.
If it results in a death- cause of death's are not listed as "unintended gun-shot-victim" they are listed as simply "gun shot" or along those lines.
So you really couldnt even deduce much more than that, if you searched through what reports are available.
 
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Citizen

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Contact Massad Ayoob. He supports armed citizens; wrote one of the first books on the subject, In the Gravest Extreme. He is also an ex-cop and expert witness. In a couple of his books he mentions the need for care to avoid perforating the bad guy and killing or injuring someone beyond, citing examples. If anybody has compiled the statistic you seek, it will be him.
 

beebobby

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I would think that a defensive, legally possessed gun discharge that injured an innocent bystander would be considered a crime and there would be some kind of statistics. Involuntary manslaughter? Gun Facts perhaps?
 
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