25,000 handgun deaths each year, including suicides. only 1 in 4 hits with handgun isthe lethal, so at most 100,000 get HIT. many of those are suicides, gang fights, murders, etc. Very few shootings are with rifles, a few more with shotguns. Lots of those shootings are by cops, not civilians. So, yes, a mere 1% of the time, a civilian actually shoots somebody in the commission of a crime. the rest of the time, MISSES and the mere sight of the gun suffices, and a lot of the time, the crime gets committed anyway. 
I've read the Armed Citizen column every month now for 35 years, and EVERY issue, there's cases where no shots are fired, and almost never does the defender actually control the situation properly. Nearly always, he gets very lucky.
so VERY rarely is skill an issue. good thing, too, cause so few have much of it. I've seen many a Class A IPSC competitor that I would never hunt with, much less trust with a cocked and loaded gun, in a combat environment. I saw so much sloppy gunhandling in basic and AIT that it made me sick(Army, Nam was still hot).
I've read the Armed Citizen column every month now for 35 years, and EVERY issue, there's cases where no shots are fired, and almost never does the defender actually control the situation properly. Nearly always, he gets very lucky.so VERY rarely is skill an issue. good thing, too, cause so few have much of it. I've seen many a Class A IPSC competitor that I would never hunt with, much less trust with a cocked and loaded gun, in a combat environment. I saw so much sloppy gunhandling in basic and AIT that it made me sick(Army, Nam was still hot).
