I'm a member of a local gun club and at the recent Christmas party the topic of gun violence came up. I was shocked and saddened to find out all the local incidents that aren't reported by the media.

I'm a gun owner but I'm not a gun nut. I don't really talk about guns, beyond my love of target shooting.<br><br>I live in a medium sized city in the US (approx. 100k people). I recently joined a local gun club which is just a collection of gun owners that meet up to hang out and shoot at the local range. We all chip in to pay for the range rental and we also have a Christmas part each year at a different members house.<br><br>I'm new to the club, and everyone is very nice, but it's dominated by older men and their wives/girlfriends. I personally am more of a left leaning independent with fiscally conservative views but socially more progressive. I imagine the rest of the club is much more right leaning.<br><br>At the Christmas party, the conversation at some point got around to crime, and that's when I learned that just this year there were 3 gun related deaths that weren't reported by the local media.<br><br>The first was a guy who went out drinking with some friends, and when he got home he found out someone had broken in. When his girlfriend came home (they lived together) she worried because the front door was open. She went inside to see if her bf was home and he screamed for her to get the gun (handgun on the dresser) and she did. She didn't know how to operate the gun and it was locked. After several mins of trying she was able to get a round in the chamber. Just as she did the intruder (who was armed) ran into the room and she shot him. She screamed for her bf who had fallen out of his bedroom window and was running around the block to the back of the house. The intruder died 2 weeks later. <br><br>The second was there was an incident where a guy woke up at 2am to his doorbell ringing. He went down, opened the door and was shot. He died at the scene.<br><br>The third was a mom who was awakened by her adult daughter (who was visiting) screaming. She came downstairs to find a guy armed with a knife and holding her daughter. She got the gun from the safe and shot the intruder. He died at the scene.<br><br>I was floored that none of these made the news. I'm not some naive person who doesn't know crime exists, but I also just assumed that all incidents of violence were reported (within reason...I didn't think a domestic violence incident should necessarily be reported unless someone died). I was told by several other members of the club that they're not reported because the police department (which is small) tries to keep crime to a minimum. In fact it was mentioned that there are often reports of car break ins where people have been car jacked but those incidents aren't reported.<br><br>I'm so disappointed. First, the media does this horrible job of portraying gun violence but it seems to be an issue that's either wildly underreported or wildly exaggerated. Second, I'm disappointed in our police department for just deciding to not report incidents.<br><br>I know it's not a huge city but this is still a lot of incidents in a relatively short period of time. I'm just so disappointed this isn't being discussed more widely.