Myth: Police are our protection - people don’t need guns

Fact: Tell that to 18,209 murder victims, 497,950 robbery victims, and 96,122 rape victims that the police could not help.¹

Fact: The courts have consistently ruled that the police do not have an obligation to protect individuals. In Warren v. District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. App. 1981), the court stated: `… courts have without exception concluded that when a municipality or other governmental entity undertakes to furnish police services, it assumes a duty only to the public at large and not to individual members of the community.’ Well, except for politicians that receive taxpayer-financed bodyguards.

Fact: There are not enough police to protect everyone. In 1999, there were about 150,000 police officers on duty at any one time.²

• This is on-duty police. This includes desk clerks, command sergeants, etc. – far fewer than 150,000 cops are cruising your neighborhood.
• There were approximately 271,933,702 people living in the United States.³
• Thus there is only one on-duty cop for every 1,813 citizens!

Fact: Former Florida Attorney General Jim Smith told Florida legislators that police responded to only 200,000 of 700,000 calls for help to Dade County authorities.

Fact: The United States Department of Justice found that, in 1989, there were 168,881 crimes of violence for which police had not responded within 1 hour.

Fact: 95% of the time police arrive too late to prevent a crime or arrest the suspect.⁴

This is an excerpt from “Gun Facts” by Guy Smith, available free from http://www.gunfacts.info