BS BULLETIN:
- A new 2026 National Firearms Survey led by Georgetown professor William English estimates Americans use firearms defensively roughly 2.2 million times per year.
- More than three-quarters of reported defensive incidents involved no shot being fired, according to the survey.
- The estimate is based on survey extrapolation and remains controversial, with gun-violence researchers challenging the methodology used to produce estimates of defensive gun use.
A new national gun survey is putting an enormous number back into the firearms debate: 2.2 million.
That’s the estimated number of defensive firearm incidents occurring in the United States each year, according to the second wave of the National Firearms Survey conducted by Georgetown University’s William English.
The survey found that 37.6% of gun owners reported having used a firearm at some point to defend themselves, their property, a family member or another household member. Most of those encounters didn’t involve anybody pulling the trigger.
THEY TOLD YOU:
“Nobody needs an AR-15.”
✅ 1 in 10 American adults owns one.
“Nobody uses high-capacity magazines.”
✅ 539 million of them in private hands.
“Defensive gun use is a myth.”
✅ 2.2 million times a year.
“If it were real, we’d see it in the crime data.”
✅ 70.6% of… pic.twitter.com/vYwPwh2QRW— National Association for Gun Rights (@gunrights) August 31, 2026
According to the survey, 76.3% of reported defensive firearm incidents ended without a shot being fired. In 34.7% of incidents, respondents said merely possessing or displaying the firearm deterred criminal conduct.
The survey also found that 50.8% of reported defensive incidents involved more than one assailant. And 70.6% of respondents who reported defensive gun use said the firearm successfully prevented the crime or threat in a way that left no crime remaining to report to police. Animal threats accounted for 8.4% of reported incidents.
English’s earlier 2021 National Firearms Survey estimated approximately 1.67 million defensive firearm uses annually, with 81.9% involving no shots fired. The new figure is higher. But there is an important caveat.
The survey does not independently document 2.2 million individual defensive gun incidents. Researchers extrapolate a national estimate from respondents’ self-reported experiences.
And that methodology has generated substantial academic criticism.
Researchers including Deborah Azrael, Joseph Blocher, Philip Cook, David Hemenway and Matthew Miller have argued that earlier versions of the National Firearms Survey contain methodological problems that make the resulting defensive-gun-use estimates unreliable.
English has defended his methodology and conclusions. The dispute matters because defensive gun use is notoriously difficult to measure. An incident where someone displays a firearm and scares away an attacker may never generate a police report, hospital record or other official documentation.
That means researchers often rely on surveys — and then argue intensely about how much confidence to place in the answers. What the new survey does make clear is that defensive gun use remains a major part of the firearms debate, even when no shot is fired.
DBS WIRE SOURCES
- Fox News — New survey on defensive gun use
- SSRN — 2026 National Firearms Survey
- SSRN — 2021 National Firearms Survey
- SMU Law Review — Methodological critique of National Firearms Survey
