There are an estimated 21.46 million concealed carry weapon permit holders in the United States. Violence Policy Center is a group that’s known to try to put their finger on the scale, and they’re directing their ire at those CCW holders today. They pushed out a release vilifying the practice. VPC once was a very powerful group that affected policy on firearms in the U.S. Now, they’re seemingly a shell of what they were. On Tuesday, February 25, 2025, they came forward stating there were “More Than 2,500 Non-Self Defense Deaths Involving Concealed Carry Killers Since 2007.”
VPC is known for being less than genuine in their practices. We’ve covered it before and we’ll cover it again. VPC was the group responsible for pushing the so-called “assault weapon” narrative.
The 1988 VPC publication, “Assault Weapons and Accessories in America,” highlighted what Josh Sugarmann, the founder of the group, really thinks about the American people [emphasis added]:
Assault weapons—just like armor-piercing bullets, machine guns, and plastic firearms—are a new topic. The weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these weapons.
One of the other disingenuous things Sugarmann did was see that the “relief from disabilities” statute was financially gutted. Under federal law, those who have had their Second Amendment rights removed used to be able to apply to have them returned. Sugarmann had the financing for this gutted via his lobbying efforts in the 1990’s.
Sugarmann leaned on statistics to implore Congress to defund the vehicle for people to actually get their rights back. What statistic was that? He found an alleged 2.6% rate of recidivism on those who received relief but subsequently fell back into criminal activity.
Just to put that whopping 2.6% recidivism rate into perspective, data from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics found that “66% of released state prisoners were rearrested within three years and 82% were arrested at least once during a ten year follow-up.”
One study on criminal activity and the police noted that, “Google News searches resulted in the identification of 6,724 cases in which sworn law enforcement officers were arrested during the time period January 1, 2005, through December 31, 2011.”
As we dive into VPC’s data, keep in mind that near seven-year period indicating almost 7,000 arrests of police officers. VPC’s data set examines alleged “non-self defense deaths” from 2007 to present – an 18-year period.
“Concealed handgun permit holders are responsible for at least 2,541 deaths not involving self-defense since 2007, according to the Violence Policy Center’s (VPC) ongoing Concealed Carry Killers (concealedcarrykillers.org) project, an online resource that provides examples of non-self defense killings involving private citizens with permits to carry concealed handguns in public,” states VPC’s release.
The true motives of this sudden Chicken Little publicity stunt are reflected by the following statement by VPC:
This latest update comes as legislation endorsed by the gun lobby and firearms industry has been introduced in the U.S. House (H.R. 38) and Senate (S. 65) to allow individuals with state-issued concealed firearm permits to carry their weapons in any state that issues carry permits or does not prohibit the carrying of concealed firearms.
The group seems to be petrified by the notion of national reciprocity.
Sticking with the tradition of being less than above the fold, VPC stated that “Thirty-eight of the incidents were fatal mass shootings as defined by federal law.” The fact that there’s no “federal law” defining “mass shooting” does not stop VPC from making the inaccurate statement. “The U.S. government has never defined mass shooting, and there is no single universally accepted definition of the term,” a Rand report states.
Sugarmann’s group highlighted their methods on data collection:
Because there is no comprehensive recordkeeping of deaths involving concealed handgun permit holders and many states in fact bar the release of such information, the examples in Concealed Carry Killers are taken primarily from news reports along with the limited information collected by a few states.
There’s nothing there. The “data” is mostly from news reports. That’s no way to make statements of fact. In reality, they have no statistics. Just allegations.
VPC Government Affairs Director Kristen Rand states, “For the firearms industry concealed carry reciprocity is good for business, while for the gun lobby it’s one more organizing tool. For the rest of us, it’s the latest pro-gun assault on public safety.”
Kristen Rand fails to say how concealed carry reciprocity is “good for business.” Rand should consider if her ability to exercise free speech across state lines sells more books. Or if we take a privilege, such as driving, and ask if being able to drive into other states causes more cars to be sold.
It’s clear their logic is flawed.
Looking at VPC’s alleged 2,541 non-self defense “killings,” and contrast that to the 21.46 million concealed carry holders, you get a rate of .012% across 18 years, or 0.000657036% annually.
Or are we better off looking at the nearly 7,000 arrests of police officers across a seven year period, more than double the numbers VPC is looking at in an 18-year period? One report said that there were 720,652 police officers in the U.S. in 2023. According to those numbers, the rate of police arrests annually is .14% – 213 times more than VPC’s alleged non-self defense killing rate.
VPC is doing exactly what they did in the late 80’s and 90’s. They pushed a narrative about assault weapons, and made them the hot topic for gun-grabbers for years – by banking on Americans’ ignorance. They pushed the narrative that a 2.6% recidivism rate was way too high for those seeking to get their rights back – when in reality it’s over 25 times less than the national average rate within three years.
If the American public wants to take the gun control narrative and embrace it, they need to know that they’re being fed warped statistics. Is VPC going to change their spots? Not likely. But we’ll keep on pointing out their flawed methods and their bigotry towards civil rights in the United States. Keep your eyes on this nonsense, it’s going to be used as reciprocity marches its way into Congress.
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