GUNS/BARMS

[basserdan]

How You Spin A False Narrative

by Karl Denninger
2015-02-22 07:10

This "story" is one of those that discerning people should return to the Times Editorial board -- wrapping the crap that their dog left while being walked.

In America’s endless debate about gun rights versus public safety, there should be no disputing the hard facts in a new report on gunshot fatalities showing that at least 722 nonself-defense deaths since 2007 were attributable to individuals with legal permits to carry concealed weapons. Concealed carry by citizens has been a soaring phenomenon as states liberalize laws in the name of lowering crime that allow more permits and easier gun access in public places, even schools, churches and restaurants.
http://tinyurl.com/l5gwhed

So that's 722 deaths in 7 years, or about 100 a year.

Sounds awful, doesn't it?

But is it?

Before I begin I'll "accept", for the sake of argument, the figures cited. Given the organization involved I have good reason to believe they're literally making things up -- but if this is the best they can do then they're in real trouble, as the facts and figures will show.

First, of those 722 deaths 218 of them were suicides. In other words the only person dead is the one with the gun, and he or she intentionally killed themself.

It's fundamentally dishonest to argue that these deaths have anything to do with concealed carry permits; one can certainly shoot oneself without a CWP. Indeed you can purchase a firearm in every state without any sort of concealed permit at all; as such these permits are in no rational way associated with suicide.

Then there's this stunner -- out of the ~700-odd "homicide incidents" that VPC tries to cite only 177 led to criminal charges, or about 24%. In other words the VPC itself admits that only one in four of their claimed "homicides" were in fact criminal acts.

But the bigger issue, beyond the intentional and knowingly-bogus inflation of the figures that "Violence Policy Center", an advocacy organization that has been caught doing this sort of crap repeatedly over the years, is the (intentional) lack of perspective.

First, there are roughly 10,000 gun homicides annually. That is, while about 500 "non-self-defense deaths", ex-suicide, were recorded over that seven year period by concealed carry permit holders some 70,000 people died due to homicide by non-CWP holders as a consequence of firearms over that same period of time.

Or, if you prefer, 0.7% of all such deaths during that time had a CWP holder involved -- a minuscule percentage of the total that is so small you can only argue for this being a problem by intentionally omitting all the other homicides.

Now let's put some perspective on this figure. Florida has approximately 20 million people living here and a million and a half active, valid CWP holders. In other words about one person in 13, including children under 18 who are, by definition, not legally able to own a firearm.

Therefore it is quite clear that on a population-adjusted basis the safest person to be around in terms of being unlawfully shot, by a factor of over 10:1, is someone with a CWP!

But the real issue isn't the minuscule number, as a percentage, of CWP holders involved in a homicide.

It's simply this: In Florida, for example, the number of permits rose by 90% from 2007-2011. The number of violent crimes in which a firearm was used dropped by one third during that same period of time.

In point of fact there are plenty of credible studies that as many as one million felonies are interrupted through the presence of a lawfully-owned firearm every year. We don't read about most of them, although if you're interested in a (short) list you can read the NRA's publication monthly; they have a column printed every month called "The Armed Citizen" detailing some of the most-egregious examples.

Why don't we hear of these incidents every night on the evening news? That's pretty simple: More than 90% of the time the weapon is not discharged because it doesn't have to be; the perpetrator, upon realizing that if he or she does not cease their unlawful conduct they are likely to assume room temperature, decides to quit whatever he or she is doing.

There is one point on which I will agree with the Violence Policy Center -- it is best if nobody gets shot. Unfortunately for the VPC the facts related to not getting shot are not in dispute: Roughly a million times a year a violent felony of some sort is stopped by the lawful presence of a firearm and in virtually every case nobody gets shot because it is not necessary to discharge the weapon to convince the felon to cease whatever he or she is doing.

In short, to cite Mr. Lott: More guns, less crime!

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=229862