"As we get more information about right-to-carry, our point is made again and again ... People who get permits in states which have fair right-to-carry laws are law-abiding, upstanding community leaders who merely seek to exercise their right to self-defense."
Tanya Metaksa, executive director
NRA Institute for Legislative Action
Dallas, Texas, 1996
Tanya Metaksa has long left the NRA. But her legacy of argument by assertion on self-defense in general, and the carrying of concealed handguns in particular, lives on.
Part of this is the predictable result of having a vocal, engaged, orange-hatted minority ready to repeat as gospel any alleged fact or conspiracy as soon as it is imparted to them. Just as important is the fact that since Metaksa's 1996 defense of concealed handgun permit holders as white knights packing heat, the NRA has worked to keep information regarding permit holders--who they are, what past or current crimes they've committed, who they've killed--secret through both legislation and litigation. Faced with a lack of actual data, the NRA then works to fill this information vacuum with its own rosy rhetoric.
Yet reality sometimes has a way of creeping in--even in the gun control debate.
According to the new Violence Policy Center on-line resource CCW Killers, during the period May 2007 through October 2009 concealed handgun permit holders killed eight law enforcement officers and 77 private citizens (including 10 shooters who killed themselves after an attack).
Because most state systems that allow the carrying of concealed handguns in public by private citizens release little data about crimes committed by permit holders
--thanks Tanya!--the VPC is forced to review and tally concealed handgun permit holder killings as reported by news outlets (in light of this, it is likely that the actual number of fatal criminal incidents involving permit holders is far higher than reported on the site). The web site will be updated monthly to include new fatal shootings and changes in the legal status of concealed handgun permit holders facing criminal charges.
The 46 incidents detailed on the web site occurred in 18 states. Of these incidents, 10 were murder-suicides involving firearms and eight were mass shootings (three or more victims) that claimed as many as 11 lives at a time.
Law enforcement officers were killed in Florida (two incidents), Idaho, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (two incidents). Here's just one of the incidents that resulted in the death of a law enforcement officer:
On July 13, 2008, Ashford Thompson shot a police officer four times in the head after he was pulled over for playing loud music. Thompson used a Kel-Tec P11 "pocket pistol" in the shooting. Thompson, who had a concealed handgun permit issued by Ohio's Cuyahoga County and had received a certificate for completing a concealed-carry class, pled guilty to aggravated murder.
Private citizens were killed in Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida (nine incidents), Idaho (two incidents), Kentucky, Michigan (three incidents), New York, North Carolina (two incidents), Ohio (three incidents), Oklahoma (two incidents), Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina (two incidents), Tennessee (five incidents), Texas, Utah (two incidents), and Virginia (three incidents). All but one of the killings were committed with guns. This mass shooting resulted in 10 deaths before the permit holder took his own life:
On March 10, 2009, Michael McLendon, a self-proclaimed survivalist, killed his mother at their family home, beginning a shooting rampage that stretched across 24 miles. By the time McLendon took his own life in the midst of a police shootout at a factory where he had previously worked, he had shot four more relatives, including his 74-year-old grandmother, and five strangers, including the wife and 18-month-old daughter of a local sheriff's deputy. McLendon had a concealed handgun permit for two handguns. Police later found at the home he shared with his mother numerous how-to DVDs on committing acts of violence.
The ongoing tallies contained in this new on-line resource are an important first step in filling the NRA-manufactured information vacuum that surrounds crimes committed by concealed handgun permit holders. At the same they make clear, month by month, state by state, body by body, that--contrary to the false promises of the gun lobby--the simple and deadly fact is that state concealed handgun systems are arming cop-killers, mass shooters, and other murderers.
Bill Mann: Fort Hood Reminds Us: Our Gun Laws Are a National Disgrace
We have millions of sick Americans who need health insurance. But there are even more of us who live in danger of being shot by an easy-to-obtain weapon.
I no longer wonder "if" a Mumbai-style attack will occur in the U.S. Absent the implementation of serious gun control measures, I now ask "when"?
Josh Sugarmann: Armor-Piercing 5.7mm Pistol Used at Fort Hood Originally Designed for Military Only
How a pistol originally designed as a military-only handgun came to be sold on the U.S. civilian market is a stark example of the increasing militarization of the U.S. civilian gun market.
Dennis A. Henigan: For the Gun Lobby, Ignorance is Bliss
The gun lobby insists that "the people should be trusted to have guns." But it is unwilling to trust the people with the truth about guns.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-barron/concealed-carry-if-youre_b_213912.html
"...the truth is that law-abiding gun use saves lives. Guns are used 2.5 million times a year in self defense - that's 6,850 times a day in this country.
Concealed carry laws have reduced murder and crime rates in states that have enacted them."
VIDEOS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyoLuTjguJA&feature=player_embedded#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCXtfR0_roE&feature=PlayList&p=0B85BD9BD1B440A8&index=0&playnext=1
If you truly educate yourself on this issue you will see that responsibly owning a gun is your required duty to providing safety and liberty for you and your family.
"There remains no robust, credible statistical evidence that the adoption of shall-issue laws will generally lower crime, and indeed the best, albeit admittedly imperfect, statistical evidence presented thus far points in the opposite direction: that the adoption of shall-issue laws will generally increase crime."
"In other words, it is rare ... to see ANY statistically significant evidence of declines in ANY violent crime category resulting from the adoption of a shall-issue law. Certainly, there is NOTHING to give one confidence that an overall drop in violent crime is likely to be spawned ANYWHERE by the adoption of a shall-issue law. "
"No longer can any plausible case be made on statistical grounds that shall-issue laws are likely to reduce crime for all or even most states. "
Given that you willfully ignore data that contradicts your position, you are not a credible source of information. You have repeatedly refused to address critiques of your statements; this is unsurprising however, as I have observed that civilian disarmament advocates, such as yourself, are frequently dishonest and irrational. Your willful refusal to address arguments against your position, in which you often engage in "ad hominem" attacks and set up "strawman" positions, is consistent with this observation.
And this "admittedly imperfect" evidence effectively refutes what exactly?
i am still waiting for the anti-gunners to demonstrate how the registration of automobiles has lead to a decline in car violence....such as hit and run deaths...dui deaths...suicides...or how registration of a vehicles has lead to less drugs being transported or illegal aliens being imported....it seems to me that a registered vehicle makes crime easier because it is less suspect...i.e..the owner is "approved" to move about the country.....
p.s...how many people died in hit and run "accidents" over the same period.....
58 Senators
38 State Attorney Generals
891 State Legislators and elected officials
Those are the ones who have filed Amicus Briefs (so far) in McDonald v Chicago in support of getting rid of the handgun ban.
How does that make you feel Josh?
When you look at the 85 incidents over the two and a half year period they cite, you actually end up with about 17 incidents which actually involved legal concealed carry.
In fact, in at least one case, VPC/Josh includes a person who did not have a concealed carry permit at all. VPC confused a "permit to purchase" (required in that particular jurisdiction) with a "permit to carry".
According to the Violence Policy Center, 85 Americans were killed by CHP-holders in a three-year period, an average of 28 per year.
Hence, an American is twice as likely to be struck by lightning and killed than murdered by a CHP-holder.
I wonder if it was assualt lightening which was responsible... perhaps with cop killer electricity?
Can't worry about that, though. GUNS are the problem!
A side note for those, uh, enthusiasts who feel the descriptions of gun addiction as being or at least near to psychosis are invented, here's an example as it plays out with some combat veterans:
At times, it is apparent that holding a powerful weapon in conditions in which it can be easily used gives the combatant a sense of grandiose power to control life and death. Some veterans experience intense guilt over the fact that they did not merely kill, but came to enjoy it. … Pleasure in killing may have many inputs, and many meanings, conscious and unconscious. … Individuals who prior to service struggled with forbidden murderous fantasies may find the combat situation an arena in which these may be gratified. … Aggression may be linked with expressions of sexual desire... Dynamic psychotherapy of some veterans who reported avoiding guns upon return to civilian life revealed that for these men the act of firing a gun was too closely tied in their minds with unacceptable and frankly sexual pleasure.
Combat Veterans: Impressions of an Analytic Observer in a Non-Analytic Setting
Click here for: The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, by Herbert H. Stein, M.D., The Journal of The American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry (2007) vol. 35:4.
http://internationalpsychoanalysis.net/2008/04/28/combat-veterans-impressions-of-an-analytic-observer-in-a-non-analytic-setting/
Combat or not, the interactions between people and guns is more than with just a tool as the gun lover's mantra would have the world believe. Join an instrument for killing with the complex, psychosocial issues people have with death and the power to kill (not to mention the linkage drawn in the article between aggression and other things) and you have SOME of the ingredients of a psychosis.
And since the posts on the murdered soccer mom finally convinced me that no possibility exists of rational discourse with gun lovers, I'm left with examining the irrational and looking at deeper-seated explanations for the totemistic, fetishistic, iconic power of guns over the gun, uh, enthusiasts.
And whether you've succeeded in finding a reason to reject it or not -- the article is about more than combat, hang on to that as you will -- this is one of those articles that helps analyze that issue. Fortunately for those who respect reason and analysis, much more is available to all.
I did not feel the need to make the % even smaller. I think it proves the point.
Do they figure people have just forgotten that Googling news blurbs isn't research?
In this country there are an estimated 4.5 or so million concealed permit holders... about as many as the United States has active duty police officers...
There are 16000 or so homicides every year in the United States...
Now lets take away the justifiable homicides that VPC uses as homicides when its fits there data...
Oh wait that aspect of there numbers wasn't mentioned in the article.. anyway, we'll use Sugarmann's stats...
85/16,000 = 0.0053125 x 100 = 0.53125% of all homicides were commited by concealed carry permit holders...
What an epidemic!
The correct calculation would be to use 75 instead of 85 since 10 of the victims were suicides and would not be counted in the total homicide count.
The proper calculation would then be:
75/40,000 = 0.001875 x 100 = 0.185% of all homicides were committed by concealed carry permit holders.
85 people died because of violent criminal acts by people with concealed carry licenses in the last two and a half YEARS? I think CHEESEBURGERS killed more people in that period of time!
If you're trying to use that number as an argument AGAINST allowing concealed carry, your logic is broken. I would expect the total number of concealed carry permit holders to be well over a million in this country right now, and while of course 85 deaths are terrible tragedies, you can't accurately weigh THAT cost unless you also compare the benefit of how many of the total concealed carry permit holders were able to PROTECT themselves and/or their families against a violent criminal attack.
With at LEAST hundreds of thousands of defensive gun uses every YEAR in the United States, I would say a good number of those must have had concealed carry permits. So the number of permit holders that protected themselves MUST far outmeasure your relatively insignificant total of 85.
I'm not trying to downplay the death of 85 innocent people, but realistically consider those people that committed criminal acts to kill them - They already proved they were willing to break the law when they took the life of another human being - do you really think they needed a concealed carry permit to do it? Do you think laws prohibiting concealed carry would have stopped them?
Frank LeClair
Bear in mind that of Josh's 85 in two and a half years (a claim we have seen from him in the past and have researched), only about 17 actually involve people actively legally carrying concealed. In fact, one of his 85 actually did not even have a concealed carry permit. Instead it appears that VPC got a permit to purchase (required in that particular jurisdiction) confused with a permit for concealed carry.
He's found 85 murders from CCW holders over a two-year span in a nation that averages over 16,000 total murders per year! Also some of those murders have not gone to trial yet, and could end up as aqquittals, making his tally even smaller.
In other words,he has proven that over 99% of murderers are NOT CCW holders, thus proving Metaksa's point as well that of other guns rights advocates that CCW holders are far more lawful then the rest of the population and can be well trusted with their weapons.
Keep cranking out those studies Josh! They help gun rights advocates more and more every time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealed_carry_in_the_United_States
"Florida has issued over 1.5 million permits since adopting the law, and has had more than 600,000 currently-licensed permit holders as of June 2009."
According to the information from Wikipedia 99.9% of Florida ccw permit holders are not "cop-killers, mass shooters, and other murderers", as Mr. Sugarmann describes.
If those numbers translate, even remotely, to the other 40+ states that issue ccw permits, it seems that the NRA is not busily manufacturing "rosy rhetoric" as was stated. It seems instead that the contrivance is on the part of the VPC and their claims of a falling sky.
What do you have to say about the statistical implications of this Mr. Sugarmann?