If the government's own data are true, and guns are used in self-defense half a million to two million times a year, and the total gun deaths, including suicides and accidents are about forty thousand, it stands to reason that most defensive uses of firearms don't result in death.
So, a lot of these self-defense cases just involve brandishing or displaying the gun.
There is debate about, if you are in one of these situations wherein...say...a guy pulls a knife on you with an intent to use it, you show a gun, and the guy backs off and runs away -- do you call the cops?
The best argument that I've heard for calling the cops is that there's a better than zero chance that your attacker will call the cops on you. Cops are humans, and humans tend to believe whatever we hear first. So, if the first thing that they here is a guy saying, "Hey, Matt pulled a gun on me." that could be an uphill battle.
Still, I understand why people don't call the cops when there's no injury or death in the incident.
Every time you claim self-defense, you're admitting to doing something that is a felony unless you can establish a scenario in which it was lawful self-defense.
So -- same scenario -- I call the cops, "Hey, this guy pulled a knife and tried to kill me."
The cops show up. They question me. They're bound to ask why this alleged attacker who was going to kill me didn't. I say, "I showed him my gun, and he ran off."
I literally just told the cop that I committed assault with a deadly weapon, and that's five years minimum in Arizona.
Now, if the bad guy calls the cops, and they question me, and I say the same thing, I'm still telling the cops that I committed assault with a deadly weapon.
So, I know that I'm probably assuming too much of the average America; but, this could explain why there's such a disparity of numbers when it comes to self-defense statistics. It makes total sense to me to leave the cops out of it if the guy just runs away at the sight of the gun.
It seems that the Gun Violence Archive, which is transparently anti-gun, and only reports 75,000 self-defense cases a year, only takes cases that were checked on and vetted by law enforcement. Namely, they start with the cases in which 911 was called and work from there.
If you were in a situation like the one mentioned above, the CDC and John Lott can't throw you in prison for answering truthfully to their surveys -- the cops can.
This is not me giving legal advice to gun owners. Do what you think is prudent.
Still, it is fundamental reality that, if law enforcement gets involved, and it comes to a place where you say, "It was self-defense." you are immediately confessing to committing a felony of one degree or another, and leaving it to law enforcement to decide whether they believe your self-defense story.