For Release: Thursday, October 31, 2013
Washington, DC — Private citizens legally allowed to carry concealed handguns have committed at least 26 mass shootings over the past six years — including the recent mass murder at the Washington Navy Yard that left 12 dead and a July shooting in Hialeah, Florida that ended the lives of six innocent victims.
These and other criminal killings can be found in the Violence Policy Center’s (VPC) latest update to Concealed Carry Killers, an online resource that offers examples of non-self defense killings by private citizens legally allowed to carry concealed handguns in public. Overall, concealed carry killers were involved in at least 386 fatal incidents since May 2007, leading to at least 540 deaths including the killing of 14 law enforcement officers.
Concealed Carry Killers is the most comprehensive report available on non-self defense killings by legal carriers of concealed firearms. Because there is no comprehensive recordkeeping of these incidents and many states in fact bar the release of such information, the examples on the Concealed Carry Killers website are taken primarily from news reports and most likely represent a fraction of actual events.
“Mass shootings by concealed handgun permit holders are now a common occurrence. It’s no surprise that the NRA and the gun industry, who benefit financially from lax concealed carry laws, ignore this growing body count. But for the sake of the victims and survivors of these shootings, the human cost of these lethal laws must be exposed,” states VPC Legislative Director Kristen Rand.
Concealed Carry Killers documents 386 incidents in 32 states and the District of Columbia since May 2007, resulting in 540 deaths involving private citizens legally allowed to carry concealed handguns. Fourteen of the victims were law enforcement officers. Twenty-six of the incidents were mass shootings, resulting in the deaths of 125 victims.
Below is a graph that breaks down the types of incidents documented in the report (click here to view the graph online):
In the vast majority of the incidents documented (315, or 82 percent), the concealed carry killer either committed suicide (132), has already been convicted (135), perpetrated a murder-suicide (37), or was killed in the incident (11).
Of the 58 cases still pending, the vast majority (48) of concealed carry killers have been charged with criminal homicide. Four were deemed incompetent to stand trial, and six incidents are still under investigation. An additional 13 incidents were fatal unintentional shootings involving a gun of the concealed handgun permit holder.
The 386 incidents do not include any that were eventually ruled as self-defense. Only 12 of the hundreds of examples tallied in Concealed Carry Killers were eventually deemed lawful self-defense. Such cases are then removed from the site’s ongoing totals.
A detailed summary of each of the 386 incidents is available at http://concealedcarrykillers.org. Clicking on each category leads to a state-by-state breakout for the incidents. To review all deaths involving concealed carry killers, click on “Total People Killed by Concealed Carry Killers.”
For examples of non-fatal concealed carry incidents, visit the VPC’s Concealed Carry Killers page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=pages#!/pages/Violence-Policy-Center-Concealed-Carry-Killers/258069527568
About the Violence Policy Center
The Violence Policy Center is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury. Follow the VPC on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
