In 1996, 1997, and 1998, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted large-scale surveys asking about defensive gun use (DGU) in four to seven states. Analysis of the raw data allows the estimation of the prevalence of DGU for those areas. Data pertaining to the same sets of states from the 1993 National Self-Defense Survey (Kleck & Gertz, 1995) allow these results to be extrapolated to the U.S. as a whole. Possible sources of error in surveys of DGU are reviewed, and the results of previous surveys compared. CDC’s survey data confirm previous high estimates of DGU prevalence, disconfirm very low estimates derived from the National Crime Victimization Survey, and indicate that defensive uses of guns by crime victims are far more common than offensive uses by criminal offenders.

在1996年，1997年和1998年，疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）进行了大规模调查，询问了四到七个州的防御性枪支使用情况（DGU）。通过对原始数据进行分析，可以估算出这些地区的DGU患病率。1993年全国自卫调查（Kleck＆Gertz，1995）中有关同一组州的数据可以将这些结果推广到整个美国。审查了DGU调查中可能的错误来源，并比较了先前调查的结果。疾病预防控制中心的调查数据证实了先前对DGU患病率的高估，对国家犯罪受害者调查得出的极低估计值表示怀疑，并表明犯罪受害人在防御性使用枪支方面比犯罪者的防御性使用要普遍得多。