I recently red Gail Collins' column, More Guns, Fewer Hoodies. In her column she cites statistics indicating that 402 people over five years have been killed by concealed weapon (CW) permit holders. WOW! That seems like a lot. Clearly CW permit holders are the scourge of the the earth. But wait. How often do I hear news reports linking CW holders to murders? Except for the recent Trayvon Martin shooting I could not think of one instance. After doing some quick mental math to determine the annual rate I figured about 80 deaths per year or about 1 or 2 deaths per state per year. No wonder I don't remember hearing about all those murderous CW permit holders. Where I live it's probably rarer still.
Okay. The absolute number is small. How about a relative comparison to all firearm deaths. Some quick research via Google revealed roughly 30,000 (It's actually higher) firearm deaths per year WISQARS Fatal Injury Reports, National and Regional. Only 0.27 percent of all firearm deaths are caused by CW permit holders. That's only 1 of 375 deaths by firearms are caused by CW permit holders. Seems like a little to me.
For me, the numbers Ms. Collins quotes are unconvincing. But you decide.
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