A new Violence Policy Center Press Release touts a claim that Concealed Handgun Permits lead to police killings and other murders. This “cause and effect” November, 2009 Press Release claims 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."
The VPC also says that Concealed handgun permit holders have killed 8 law enforcement officers and 77 private citizens over a two and one half year period.
That’s 85 people killed by CPL holders out of the hundreds of thousands of law abiding concealed handgun licensees in the country. But, of the VPC numbers, 50 CPL holders were convicted in a 30 month period. And, another 25 cases are being contested and have not gone to trial. These 25 people are innocent of all charges, unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.10 of the 85 were suicides. VPC blames the gun for the suicides, and the fact that the person committing suicide had a CPL, which is a fallacious assertion.
The VPC totals do not include any CPL holders who are charged eventually acquitted of the charges, although guilt by implication is implied because the VPC site details the facts of the shootings.
For example, one CPL holder listed by the VPC was charged with manslaughter. However, a Judge agreed to toss out the manslaughter charge after his attorneys argued that he fired in self-defense under Florida’s “stand your ground” law. But, this man is "Guilty" in the eyes of the VPC.
His story is lumped in the same general category as CPL holders who may have killed intentionally, but he is not counted in their total.
So, is self defense with a firearm objectionable to the VPC? The FBI also says that in 2007, there were 202 self defense justifiable homicides by firearms by private individuals. These shootings that were found to be self-defense were the most since 1997.
Would the VPC deny these people their right to defend themselves from certain death or serious injury by using firearms. The answer is simple….YES.
Another 37 people did justifiable homicides with knives. The FBI says a homicide committed by a private citizen is justified when a person is slain during the commission of a felony, such as a burglary or robbery.
According to the latest FBI statistics, in 2007, there were 10,086 firearms homicides.
The FBI also says that in 2008, there were 9,484 firearms homicides. There were 204 citizen justifiable homicides with firearms. Another 30 did justifiable homicides with knives.
The number of homicides done by CPL holders, as portrayed by the VPC, is very small when compared with other firearms homicides. The total number of people who kill with a gun after going through the background and permitting process and getting a CPL is extremely small, almost infinitesimal in fact , when compared with those CPL holders who do not do violence
Let’s just for one moment be extremely generous when considering the VPC numbers, and consider a hypothetical look at what the VPC claims. We'll compare the number of CPL holder homicides against the total number of firearms homicides. Let’s hypothetically say that all of the CPL killings VPC refer to happened in just 2008 for comparison purposes, and not the30 months VPC used. Let’s put them all in one year and not 30 months. When we compute a percentage of CPL holders who committed homicide in this theoretical period. It’s just 8/100ths of one percent of firearms murders that were done by done by Concealed Pistol License Holders.
It’s not even that much. Part of the total 85 killings by CPL holders that the VPC claims also included killings that happened between May, 2007 and December 2007, and January, 2009 through October, 2009, further diluting the percentages of CPL holder homicides versus total firearms homicides. That’s 77 Homicides spread over 2008 and an additional 18 months of CPL homicides versus all firearms homicides during those additional 18 months.
And, when one considers that there are 80,000,000 firearms owners in America, with some 240 million guns, the 77 CPL holders who VRC killed private individuals over a 30 month period is just 0.0000009 % of all American gun owners. Also, considering the 80,000,000 gun owners, only 0.000185% of those gun owners killed someone with a firearm in 2008.
One intentional and unjustifiable death by firearms is too many. But the solution is enforcement of current laws. If a person is absolutely intent and determined to kill another person, there is no law anywhere in the world that will stop him or her from doing so. Even VPC cannot name one that will stop a person like Major Hasan. One more new anti gun law is just one more anti gun law that a criminal intent on killing or committing any crime with or without a gun will ignore.
VPC also laments the privacy given by the law in the government’s not publicly releasing CPL holder’s names. They say, ”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, the VPC reviews and tallies concealed handgun permit holder killings as reported by news outlets. It is likely that the actual number of fatal criminal incidents involving concealed handgun permit holders is far higher.”
The VPC has “vignettes” of CPL holder Homicides on their website. But, nowhere in their press release or website do they note the fact that, according to the FBI, there has been on average over 200 justifiable self defense homicides by firearms each year for the past few years.
It's just about no guns for everyone, except the criminals. I'ts a liberal fantasy that they are promoting. Its also a good way to make a living.
1 comment:
It's good that the VPC totals do not include any CPL holders who are charged eventually acquitted of the charges, although guilt by implication is implied because the VPC site details the facts of the shootings.
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