gnu and Don & OldDude...and others... who argue FOR self-protection by owning, carrying or showing guns. The 'stats' just do not bear you out as pertains to the country in general.

For every instance of one clever or lucky person who DOES manage to thwart a crime by showing or using a gun, there are dozens of deaths or injuries incurred because they were not 'quite' clever, fast or lucky enough when the criminal DID have one. Add to this the hundreds of casualties every year among those who were simply victims because some dangerous person did have one, and the 'stats' simply show that some are 'slightly' increasing their own odds **at the expense of** the majority who are not willing or able to be a trained user.

I just watched (not one hour ago) a couple of videos of security camera video of criminals terrorizing a small business. They entered suddenly and hit, threatened, and in one case shot, a clerk who resisted.
Now, stories of clerks who produced a gun and managed to scare or shoot a robber make very good news stories... especially if it's an old lady... but the dozens of stories every week about clerks who resisted and got SHOT, which don't make the news, are the 'stats' which are relevant.

We are not likely to reduce the number of dangerous people anytime soon.....we could reduce the number and type of gun & ammo available....but as long as people continue to assert THEIR 'rights' and intention to be (or at least 'feel' minimally safer personally, no matter what happens to those mostly nameless, faceless victims who make up the 'stats', we (especially in the US where the % of deaths per 100,000 is 3-10 times most countries) will keep reading sad stories... and having this discussion.
Until MOST gun owners agree to and openly support some serious changes...even if it means losing 'some' of their privileges, nothing much will change.

(and, dammit, Tim McVeigh's totals were only about 10 days worth of GUN deaths. If 4-5 bombs like that happened, you'd have to have FBI clearance to buy fertilizer! Meanwhile, we get mass shootings 3-4 times a year, and shooting of police many more times, and NOTHING is done. Can you tell I am tired of slippery arguments designed to weakly defend what folks have decided to believe, no matter what the contrary evidence staring them in the face?)

I better go watch a golf match or something....