How many of these self defense cases used AR-15s or other military style weaponry?
I’m sure that the fact that they MIGHT have had high velocity semiautomatic rifles handy served as an effective deterrent in all of those (handful of) cases.
Otherwise, why would Derec keep bringing up his list of single incidents where (other kinds of) guns were used in self defense?
Bad faith discussion? Or more of the profound ignorance he has consistently demonstrated regarding firearms?
Yup. The hypothesis that guns are effective as a self defence mechanism, either directly or indirectly, can be easily falsified; It predicts that two similar societies, one of which allows gun ownership for "self defence", and one which only allows gun ownership for other purposes, will have significantly different levels of crime, with the "self defence" society being less crime prone in statistically measurable and significant ways.
When we compare the US and Canada, for example, we should, if this hypothesis is correct, see significantly higher crime rates in Canada.
That this test leads, not to the abandonment of the failed hypothesis, but instead to a flurry of goalpost movements and ad-hoc defences of the failed prediction, is all the evidence needed to conclude that "guns are good for self-defence" is a religious belief, and not a true statement about reality.
My favourite ad-hoc "reasoning" is "you need a gun because the police cannot be everywhere all the time"; It's one of those ideas whose only value is its simplicity. Even an idiot can understand this argument. Indeed,
only an idiot would think it a compelling reason to own a firearm.