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In the weeks since Sept. 11, some Americans have added both holster and lanyard to their workaday gear. They're packing heat and flashing badges in the name of safety, security and peace of mind.

Gun dealers across the nation have reported a surge in business since the terrorist attacks, as have firing ranges, weapons trainers and firearm regulators.

Last month the FBI told the Washington Post that permit applications had increased 15 percent above normal from Sept. 11-13. .

A researcher for the National Association of Federally Licensed Firearms Dealers said the 200 members she'd talked to had seen an upshot in sales, mostly to first-time buyers. Indeed, several Washington-area gun sellers told the Post their sales had increased between 50 percent and 75 percent.

In greater Louisville, Ky., a shooting range operator who provides concealed-weapon training told the weekly Business First he'd had to double his course offerings from five to 10 full classes, each with 21 students.

Badge makers must be pretty busy too. When we aren't buying weapons, it seems we're acquiring employee identification cards. Plastic mini-portraits have spread like birdshot in workplaces big and small, including the Northwest Arkansas Times.

Despite the timing, though, most gun and ID wielders will quickly deny that all this protection is about terrorists.

Kentucky gun dealer Bob Goranflo told Business First the Sept. 11 attacks have "made people realize just how vulnerable they can be." He said people want to "protect their homes from other crimes, like burglary, where a drug addict may break into a house."

A single mother and first-time gun buyer in Virginia echoed that sentiment when she told the Post that the attacks, plus a recent break-in attempt at her apartment, accelerated her decision to buy a handgun.

Meanwhile, employers make do with the placebo affect. "You don't recognize everyone who works here," they remind ID skeptics. "Now, when an unfamiliar person comes in, you'll know whether he belongs here."

Those who've turned to handguns probably think they're better protected than those who suffice with laminated mug shots. But are they really?

Like Goranflo and that Virginia mom, law-abiding citizens typically envision threats coming from burglars, robbers or attackers unknown to them. Handgun ownership can provide peace of mind -- evidence that they'll be able to fend off scary strangers.

Unfortunately, the facts don't support such notions -- not even when you consider the realities that send good people to the arsenal in the first place.

There's no denying, for instance, that wrongdoing is seemingly rampant. The FBI reported 1.4 million incidents of violent crime and 10.2 million incidents of property crime in 1999 alone. The Bureau of Justice says 51 percent of all homicides that year were committed with handguns, and 14 percent with other guns. In 2000, a weapon was present in 26 percent of violent crimes overall and 55 percent of robberies.

No wonder citizens think they need handguns to meet the bad guys halfway.

But wait, there's a twist: Of the 32,166 firearm deaths reported in 1997, a full 55 percent were actually suicides. Homicides trailed at 41 percent. The other deaths were either unintended or of unknown intent.

And even in cases of murder, most victims are killed by people they know. The Bureau of Justice reports that in 2000, only 15 percent of murder victims were killed by strangers. About 45 percent were acquainted with their assailants, while another 40 percent had undetermined relationships.

There's more: The Violence Policy Center says that in 1998, nearly five times as many women were fatally shot by an intimate as by a stranger. Self-defense seems mythical in such cases: In 1997, for every time one woman fatally shot an intimate to save herself, 97 women were murdered by an intimate.

Indeed, the presence of a gun in the home was shown to make a woman three times more likely to be a homicide victim -- and seven times more likely to be killed by an intimate.

Nonfatal violence looks no better. The Bureau of Justice says 40 percent of victims in the workplace know their assailants. And according to the National Victim Center, 75 percent of all rapes involve offenders known to the victim, while more than six in 10 rapes occur to children under 18 -- people too young to buy guns for self-defense.

Still think you've got a shot at the silver bullet? You're not alone: A Police Foundation survey found some 44 million Americans owned 192 million firearms in 1994, including 65 million handguns.

But all that firepower doesn't seem to help much. In the average year, says the Bureau of Justice, only 1 percent, or about 62,200 actual or attempted victims of violent crime use a firearm in self-defense. Another 20,300 claim to use a gun to defend their property during theft or burglary.

Meanwhile, 341,000 gun thefts are reported annually, most of which are taken from households.

Looking at the numbers, it appears that firearms are hardly better than ID cards in the safety and security game. In fact, they may be worse. At least when you flash your ID, you can't hurt yourself or other innocents. And when your children play with your badge, the only shot they get is a mug.

Wanda Freeman is copy editor at the Northwest Arkansas Times. Her column appears on Saturdays.
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