Keeping Track of Killings by Concealed Handgun Permit Holders--85 Dead So Far [View All]

That is the title of an article in The Huffington Post by Josh Sugarman Executive director of the Violence Policy Center in Washington, DC.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-sugarmann/keeping-track-of-killings_b_360572.html

The article goes on to try to scare the reader into thinking the concealed carry by ordinary people is dangerous. But lets look closer at the statistic. The time period for those murders covers May 2007 to October 2009 - 2.5 years.

First, how many people in the US have CCWs. Some states don't publish the data. Texas, Florida, and North Carolina combined have over one million people with CCWs. There are 39 shall-issue states, 1 universal CCW state,(Alaska is universal carry, but does also have a state issued CCW for reciprocity. I count it here as a shall-issue state.) and eight states that have may-issue CCW. I searched but couldn't find a good solid estimate for the number of CCWs in the US. It seems reasonable that since three states can total over a million, then for the entire US an estimate of five million CCW holders seems reasonable.

From this site: http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm I get the crime statistics for the entire US. Since the year 2009 is not complete, I will use 2007, 2008 and half of 2006 to get 2.5 years. Total murders is 40,666. Population is about 300 million. (40,000+ murders and Sugarman is in a flap over 85?) That yields a murder rate of 13.88/100,000 for a 2.5 year period. Annual rate is 5.4 according to the FBI, for the general population.

Now lets look at those 85 murders. 85/5,000,000 = .000,017. .000,017 X 100,000 = 1.7 per 100,000 for a 2.5 year period.

13.88/1.7 = 8.16

CCW holders are 8.16 times safer than the general populace.

The VPC deceives again - no surprise.