Crime prevention statistics

Question
Are there any widely trusted (FBI, etc) statistics on crime prevention by armed law-abiding citizens in the U.S.? How would I access such statistics?

Answer
Robert,

Unfortunately, most of the crimes that are prevented by armed law-abiding citizens go unreported.  Since no crime occurs, police may or may not be involved and there may be no legal consequences.

There are several folks that do a lot of writing in this area.  I'd suggest that you read one of more of John Lott's books on the effect of legal firearms ownership on crime rates.  

A quick Google search turned up two articles which are somewhat representative of the premise that legal firearms ownership does reduce crime rates.  Unfortunately,  both these studies are based on somewhat dated information.  The links are at the bottom of this answer.

You might also want to check out a more up-to-date resource.  It is a book by Howard Nemerov called "Four Hundred Years of Gun Control...Why It Isn't Working".

Hope this helps you out some...

Regards,

Doug


http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/493636.html
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st176