Josh Sugarmann, Executive Director of the Violence Policy Center is experiencing full panty torqueage again. And he’s lying. Again. He’s jumped on the runaway anti-gun bandwagon with  a piece for HuffPo titled Trayvon Martin’s Life One of Hundreds Ended by Concealed Carry Killers hyping the VPC’s Concealed Carry Killers meme.

Now I could go ahead and deconstruct their numbers, pointing out that self-defense shooters like Cleveland Anthony Murdock (who shot a road rager trying to get in his vehicle), or Vincent Williams (who shot a would be carjacker after being shot first) are probably not the kind of people most folks would consider “killers.”

I could look at the VPC’s highly questionable inclusion of the Tucson shooter as a “concealed carry killer” based on AZ’s Constitutional carry law (which, by the way, prohibits concealed carry for criminal purposes).

I could look at the number of suicides that they count as killings, despite the fact that multiple studies have shown that suicide rates are independent of method.

But I’m not going to do any of that. I am going to accept their ludicrously inflated numbers at face value because I can destroy their “argument” without either A) pitching any of their dubious “killers” or B) breaking a sweat. Ready?

According to the VPC there have been 402 people killed by permit holders since May, 2007. According to LegallyArmed.com there are about 6.9 million permit holder in the U.S. Which means that in the last 4.8 years we have averaged 1.2 murders per 100,000 permit holders annually.

Now, according to DisasterCenter.com, between 2007 and 2010 we averaged 15,880 murders annually with an average population of 305,437,022. According to Wikipedia, in 2009 27.3% of the population was under 20 (we don’t count them because permit holders are all 21 or older) so the general population averaged 7.2 murders per 100,000.

So even granting Josh his ludicrously inflated numbers, a permit holder is still one-sixth as likely to be a murderer as the average Joe.

All that said, those numbers are completely irrelevant because the freedom to own and carry the weapon of your choice is a natural, fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil, and Constitutional right — subject neither to the democratic process nor to arguments grounded in social utility.[1]

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s see what Josh has to say:

The tragic shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman has rightly generated tremendous outrage across the nation.

I guess Josh and his pals don’t hold with that whole “innocent until proven guilty” silliness (which anyone who has followed their “terror gap” hysteria could tell you) but I agree it was a tragedy.

What I don’t agree with is that the shooting rightly has generated outrage; I believe there is far too much still not known, and far too much which is known but is being left out of media coverage (like the fact that one of the police reports on the incident states that Mr. Zimmerman had a bloody nose and a cut on the back of his head) to say whether or not the outrage is justified.

Despite the tragic circumstances surrounding Trayvon Martin’s death, the gun lobby is relentlessly pursuing federal legislation that would expand the ability of … all other concealed carry permit holders to carry their loaded handguns nationwide. The NRA-backed S. 2188 would force all states that issue concealed carry permits to recognize all out-of-state permits, even if the person could not qualify for a permit in that state.

Since several states say you can’t qualify for a permit unless you are a resident, I think that’s a perfectly reasonable limit. But Josh seems to find this horrifically sinister; as if mother rapers, father stabbers and child murderers are going to escape the Group W bench and start carrying en masse. Take a deep breath Josh, try to relax and answer me this: if someone is qualified to possess a firearm under federal law[2], why shouldn’t they be able to get a permit to carry?

We call the bill the George Zimmerman Armed Vigilante Act.

That’s nice Josh, I call your opposition to the law the Let’s Only Lock Up Black Athletes and Not Good White Folks From TN or IN for Carrying In NYC Act.

But even that bill is not extreme enough for Gun Owners of America, who have persuaded John Thune (R-SD) and David Vitter (R-LA) to introduce another version (S. 2213) which recognizes the “rights” of gun carriers from states that don’t require permits to carry.

Oh noes! Actually recognizing Constitutional Carry! Oh the humanity! But Josh can’t be too worried about this bill, right? I mean the NRA is pushing the other one so it must have lots of support. Why look, it has exactly one sponsor, Senator Mark Begich (D- AK) and three co-sponsors; Sen. Max Baucus (D- MT), Sen. Joe Manchin (D- WV), Sen. Jon Tester (D- MT). Whereas S. 2213 has two sponsors Senators John Thune (R-SD) and David Vitter (R-LA) and twenty-nine co-sponsors (see a list of co-sponsors here).

Damn that representative democracy.

While Florida’s ‘Shoot First’ law is the reason that George Zimmerman has not been arrested, it’s Florida’s concealed carry law that enabled him to confront Trayvon Martin with a loaded handgun in the first place. Without Florida’s lax concealed carry law Trayvon Martin would be alive today. Across America, hundreds of innocent lives and families have been decimated, their communities shaken, by concealed carry killers who acted as judge, jury, and executioner.

But what Josh and so many of his brethren fail to mention is that twice as many lives are saved in DGUs annually as are taken in CGUs. This means that across America, tens of thousands of innocent lives and families have been protected by concealed carry saviors.

Oh well. Those details just aren’t important to Josh. The only thing that’s really important here is making sure he uses a tragic shooting with questionable circumstances to his full advantage.

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29 COMMENTS

  1. A drooling leftist writing for a zero-credibility leftist site. Preaching to the choir, not gonna make a dent.

    I love how he puts “rights” in quotes. Doesn’t that just perfectly sum up the leftist mind, and further prove why we must wake up and view them as what they truly are: domestic enemies?

    • I don’t think its about left or right here, he’s just waaaaay too ideological period. I think we can all agree that people lose perspective (and reason) when they get too far from the center on either side.
      That being said, he’s a toolbox for trying to smear the word “concealed carry” by associating it with “killers”… its language engineering at its worst.. done by partisan hacks on both sides of the political spectrum (Patriot Act, Gun Violence, Job Creators, etc) to try to short-circuit their audience’s logic.

      • I agree there’s overblown rhetoric, but some concealed carry guys do bad things. We don’t disagree on that. What we disagree on is whether it’s worth inconveniencing the vast majority in order to make that small percentage of bad apples even smaller.

        I say yes.

        • You say yes to infringing on the rights of the vast majority in order to make that small percentage of bad apples even smaller.

          We say no.

  2. “mother rapers, father stabbers…”
    —–
    FATHER rapers! Father rapers sittin’ right there on the bench with me!

  3. No amount of factual argument will change the opinion of a load bearing wall.It can only be moved or changed by outside force alone.People such as those of the VPC and Brady camps are akin to Levees in New Orleans;out of date,out of touch,and exacerbating the problem they claim to mitigate.Let us treat them as we would a condemned building and ignore such drivel,until the national will exists to take a wrecking ball to the policies the VPC champions.

  4. Is it just me or are the antis getting more and more inflammatory? They used to be just 95% emotionalism with just a splash of arrogant/elitist/intellectualism but now they’re seeming more spiteful.

    Now instead of crying mothers, dead “youths”, and “assault clips” we have “Concealed Carry Killers” and “Florida’s ‘Shoot First’ law…” and “…the George Zimmerman Armed Vigilante Act.”

    I vaguely suspect they’re getting more spiteful in their desperation.

    • They are following the normal progression of those who are on the losing side of an argument, to wit:

      1. Factual debate
      2. Emotional pleas
      3. Ad hominem attacks
      4. Outright violence

      Note that they are on step 3. One wonders how well step 4 will go for them…

  5. With all the blood dancing from the “usual suspects” in the wake of the shooting of Trayvon Martin I’m going to have to dig out my old Gallagher tarp to keep from getting spattered.

  6. I am so pissed off at Zimmerman for putting us back to the Clinton day’s. I am even more pissed off at the Police Chief and or DA. for not throwing Zimmermans ass in Jail! You don’t follow someone then get out of your car and confront, then call it self defense, especially when the police said don’t follow, and that crumb acknowledged the DON’T FOLLOW request. I have been carrying since 1962 and every year since then has been a struggle with liberals and would be dictators like Bloomberg and Obama. And every so often you come up with a Zimmerman or two to screw things up Royally!

    • Srsly, that dept could have laid this whole thing to rest with due diligence, one way or the other. If anything this incident shows cops should be more heavily regulated, not guns.

    • Not to worry, Frank and Jake. At a presser a couple of hours ago, Obama said that he was going to get to the bottom of the case.

      We’re saved.

  7. I’ve noticed over the years that every group or issue that the anti-gun crowd is pushing ALWAYS has these powerful adjectives infront if it. So we now have “Concealed carry killers”. Last year it was “Terrorist watch list” members buying firearms as if having your name on a list with absolutely no due process suddenly made you a criminal. Before that is was “assault weapon” and “Dangerous high capacity magazines”, and before that we has “Saturday Night specials”. And I love who they get quotes from. I read the terror gap link in the thread and saw that the Brady people quoted a member of al Qaeda as a reliable source of information:

    “In June, a month after the House Judiciary Committee rejected closing the terror gap in federal gun laws, one of al Qaeda’s terrorist recruiters – American-born Adam Gadahn – explained how easy it is to acquire assault weapons in the United States:

    “America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle without a background check and most likely without having to show an identification card. So what are you waiting for?””

    I’ve been to lots of gun shows, and gun stores and even estate auctions where firearms are sold, and I have NEVER EVER seen a fully automatic firearm offered without I.D. and the federal paper work being absolutely required. Have any of you guys seen one for sale with no I.D. required, ever? How in the world do these people get away with such bold faced lies? I’d LOVE to put a Pinnochio nose curse on these folks so that we could instantly identify them as the liars they are. But I risk being called a heartless scumbag because it would be fatal for some of the Brady bunch as well as politicians to try to maintain a viable blood supply for their 200 pound noses.

      • “America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle without a background check and most likely without having to show an identification card. So what are you waiting for?””

        Oh my my, Oh hell yes, I got put on that party dress.
        In this guy’s wet dreams.
        Where he could really score is with the US Government providing him weapons like we do in Afghanistan.

  9. Concealed Carry Killers sounds like the title of a 70’s B-movie. Something like Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

  10. I gave up trying to rationalize anything the VPC puts out. The Brady Campaign may lie through their teeth and distort (Or fabricate; depending on the situation), but the VPC is actually far worse in terms of distortion.
    Either way; both groups are scum for trying to exploit this young man’s death to push their gun-grabbing agenda.

      • A few years back I saw someone unloading Million Mom fanny packs for like $1. I still kick myself for not getting some for extra-discrete carry.

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