As 2024 drew to a close, examples abounded of ordinary Americans whose Second Amendment rights proved to be the ultimate defense against criminals.
While the facts of these defensive gun uses were different, none of these encounters is necessarily “unique.” In fact, reliance on armed self-defense is almost routine.
Almost every major study has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times annually, according to the most recent report on the subject by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021, the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the issue concluded that roughly 1.6 million defensive gun uses occur in the United States every year.
For this reason, The Daily Signal publishes a monthly article highlighting some of the previous month’s many news stories on defensive gun use that you may have missed—or that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. (Read accounts from past months and years here.)
The examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use during crimes that we found in December. You may explore more by using The Heritage Foundation’s interactive Defensive Gun Use Database.
As these examples demonstrate, more than 230 years after its ratification, the Second Amendment remains as important as ever. No matter the year, the right to keep and bear arms ensures that ordinary Americans have the means to protect themselves and their communities from violent threats.