Is it safer to use a gun in an attack?

Is it safer to use a gun in an attack?

Paul Helmke (President, The Brady Campaign) gives expert video advice on: Do guns increase violent crime?; Is it safer to use a gun in an attack?; Why is there opposition to gun locks? and more...

Every situation is going to be different. But, generally, if a criminal's got a gun already, the criminal is going to have a jump on you. And you pulling a gun is generally going to end up with you being shot, unless you are well trained, know what you are doing and anticipate it. Trained police officers in a tense situation, a shoot out situation, only hit their target 20% of the time. And for us to expect an untrained, non-police officer, in the middle of the night, to successfully pull that weapon on a bad guy with a gun, just means that that person is more likely to get shot. You're always going to find the individual situation where somebody does use a gun properly. But overall, individuals having a gun, pulling the gun on a bad guy, having the gun in the house, that gun is more likely to be used against the individual or family member than it is to stop the bad guy.