According to self-proclaimed concealed handgun permit holder Glenn Beck:
"I carry a gun. I mean, I know people that carry guns all the time. Concealed weapons permit holders are responsible, for the love of Pete. I don't know any of them that have ever been in a shootout."
Well, Glenn, meet two of your fellow concealed handgun permit holders--Matthew Culbertson and Roger Troy--in this new YouTube video from the Violence Policy Center.
Culbertson and Troy are just two of 11 new concealed carry killers identified by the Violence Policy Center in the March update to its Concealed Carry Killers web site. As fully detailed on the site, concealed handgun permit holders have killed at least nine law enforcement officers in addition to 142 private citizens (including 15 shooters who killed themselves after an attack) since May 2007. And there are plenty of "shootouts."
It's not that Glenn Beck doesn't know about the murders, mass shootings, and police killings committed by his fellow "responsible" concealed handgun permit holders. It's that he doesn't want to acknowledge the lethal crimes they're committing. So what else is new?
Follow Josh Sugarmann on Twitter: www.twitter.com/VPCinfo
Great article about NRA member Mike Vanderboegh. Seems he's advocating civil war.
Have to laugh at this part:
"Vanderboegh said he once worked as a warehouse manager but now lives on government disability checks. He said he receives $1,300 a month because of his congestive heart failure, diabetes and hypertension. He has private health insurance through his wife, who works for a company that sells forklift products."
Yup, another NRA tough guy calling for war--so long as it doesn't stop those Govt. checks from rolling in.
If you did even a little bit of research you would know that that Mike Vanderboegh hates the NRA.
People with concealed handgun licenses have killed 151 people, thus (by association), people with concealed handgun licenses are homicidal.
Does the ad hominem argument actually stand up? We live in a country of 280 million people, and as a general statement, about 1-2% of the population has concealed handgun licenses. In 2008 (the last year for which the FBI has released the UCR) there were 14,180 murders. If we assume that licensees kill at the same rate as the general population, then concealed handgun licensees should have committed 142 (1%) - 284 (2%) of those homicides, LAST YEAR ALONE. Mr. Sugarmann's figure of 151 for all of history is...not very persuasive.
Both points are meaningless. The real question is: what is the net effect of having a concealed handgun license law? First, how many of those 151 licensees would have committed a homicide regardless of the existence of a concealed handgun law? Did the concealed handgun law in fact facilitate crimes, and how many? Second, how many licensees prevented criminal acts that would have otherwise been committed, because they were armed?
Notice how Josh doesn't mention the fact that 48 states have some form of concealed carry laws; and within those states there are an estimated 9 million CCW holders. He neglects to mention the violent crime rate which is is at an all-time low (10% was the last figure?). He breezes past the black eyes which are Chicago and D.C., both of which have handgun bans (DC overturned by Heller, and Chicago soon-to-be overturned by McDonald) yet DC consistently led the nation in homicides, while Chicago has about 500 annual murders and accounts for 60% of all homicides in IL. Let's not forget the recent shooting galleries, aka, Gun Free Zones (V-Tech, NIU, Trolley Sq Mall, Lancaster PA, etc...)
While any homicide is tragic, he's certainly reaching out to his target audience by failing to show these statistics in per capita terms, which would show CCW holders committing significantly less than 1% of all annual homicides in the US. (compare that to repeat felons).
Yes folks, while Josh is faced with the realities of Joyce's funding cuts to the VPC, it's full steam ahead with the emotional choo-choo train.
All aboard........
There is no direct, or even indirect, connection between the loosening of gun control regulations and the drop in crime rates.
If Josh wanted to make a difference he would do better being a mentor to a child in his city.
"God, Guns, and Guts make America strong". Putting God and guns in the same sentence?
"Put back your sword. All who live by the sword will die by the sword."
Peace is a choice.
"Granola made America strong."
Gungrabbers shy away from a full revelation of statistics because when the whole truth is out, they lose. Guns owned and carried legally thwart far more crime than they cause.
Josh says he/VPC is keeping a running tally of all the people with concealed carry permits who are involved in homicides.
Some of the many problems with his data:
1) He relies on news media accounts. Unfortunately for him, the news media is quite frequently wrong about such things. In one case they confused a permit to purchase (required in that particular jurisdiction) with a permit to carry concealed. In others, they have simply as.sumed that a person had a concealed carry permit.
2) In several of the cases the people used to have permits, but did not have one at the time of the incident in question. Such is the case of Maj Hasan at Ft Hood.
3) In roughly 80% of the cases, the person was NOT exercising their concealed carry permit during the shooting. The shootings either took place in residences (no permit required) or involved long guns (not concealed carry firearms) or the firearm was not concealed.
Regardless, the main point is that it is less likely for a concealed carry permit holder to misuse their concealed carry firearm when carrying concealed than it is for the general public to illegally carry concealed and misuse their firearm. And the statistics pretty well bear this out.
In reality there is no such thing as a semi-auto machine gun and there is no such thing as a armor piercing hollow point.
But then again, the news media thinks that .9 mm, 45 mm, .45 mm, 12 caliber, and .12 gauge are all valid bore measurements (I see these frequently as well).
The little I know of Glenn Beck would have me believe that he's probably not qualified to be a concealed weapons permit holder, I doubt that he's alone in that regards, but 150 since 2007?
Let's put that in perspective. It's estimated that 98,000 die in the U.S. each year from medical mistakes.
How many doctors lose their licenses? If you want to be outraged at needless deaths, there are more productive places to look.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/deadbymistake/6555095.html