Rutgers has some facts and figures on defensive gun use in the United States. It is worth noting that “use” includes simply showing or telling someone you find threatening that you have a gun.

• People who have experienced gun violence or know someone who has experienced gun violence, including suicides, are more likely to own guns.
• 8.3% of people who own guns have used them at some point. 4.7% showed the gun to someone, 3.8% told someone they had a gun (and they really did), 1.1% said they fired but not at a person, and 1.2% said they fired at a person.

The article doesn’t really come out and say it, but the gist is really that people who own guns are at greater risk of being harmed by guns than people who do not. This is counterintuitive and very few people are swayed by evidence these days, of course. The policy prescription: “Of primary importance will be efforts to shift the narrative around firearms to deemphasize DGU as a common outcome. In doing so, policy efforts can be decoupled from efforts to prioritize safety through a lens of self-defense and instead center on efforts to reduce the risk of injury and death associated with firearm access.”