I discuss three key principles that should be included in any kind of "gun violence" research, including:
- Firearms save lives as well take lives.
- The value of firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens should be measured in terms of lives saved or crimes prevented, not criminals killed.
- The right to self-defense does not depend on statistics and numbers.
Any public health research that studies only the negative effects of criminal misuse of guns while ignoring the positive lawful uses misses a critically important part of the picture.