The push for a greater number of concealed carry gun permits will only lead to more deadly shootings, the New York Times editorial board argued Monday, referring to Americans who support the idea as “naive.”
The Times’ conclusion is based on admittedly inconclusive data compiled by the Violence Policy Center, an anti-gun group.
“The more that sensational gun violence afflicts the nation, the more that the myth of the vigilant citizen packing a legally permitted concealed weapon, fully prepared to stop the next mass shooter in his tracks, is promoted,” the editorial board argued.
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“This foolhardy notion of quick-draw resistance, however, is dramatically contradicted by a research project showing that, since 2007, at least 763 people have been killed in 579 shootings that did not involve self-defense,” they added. “Tellingly, the vast majority of these concealed-carry, licensed shooters killed themselves or others rather than taking down a perpetrator.”
Along with mass shootings and other gun-related crime, the final tally of deaths caused by firearms includes suicides, which the editorial board characterized as, “the ultimate contradiction of concealed carry as a personal safety factor.”
Current statistics on gun violence and concealed carry permits suggest that more armed Americans would only lead to further deaths, the editorial stressed again.
“Compared with the 579 non-self-defense, concealed-carry shootings, there were only 21 cases in which self-defense was determined to be a factor,” they explained.
Though the Times conceded that the cited Violence Policy Center data is incomplete, it argued that the numbers are good enough to predict future trends.
“More complete research … would undoubtedly uncover a higher death toll,” the editorial board said.
The newspaper blamed the lack of complete data on the cunning of the supposedly omniscient and omnipresent “gun lobby.”
“[T]he gun lobby has been so successful in persuading gullible state and national legislators that concealed carry is essential to public safety, thus blocking the extensive data collection that should be mandatory for an obvious and severe public health problem,” the Times argued. “For that reason, the center has been forced to rely largely on news accounts and limited data in 38 states and the District of Columbia. … But this truly vital information is kept largely from the public.”
The “gun lobby’s” meddling aside, it’s still a safe bet that more concealed carry permits will lead to a substantial increase in the number of gun-related deaths, they added.
“Clearly, concealed carry does not transform ordinary citizens into superheroes. Rather, it compounds the risks to innocent lives, particularly as state legislatures, bowing to the gun lobby, invite more citizens to venture out naïvely with firearms in more and more public places, including restaurants, churches and schools,” the Times said.
“Recent concealed-carry excesses include legal shooters charged by the police with recklessly pegging a few wild shots at shoplifters and other nonviolent suspects they see fleeing on public streets,” it concluded. “This is dangerous vigilantism that endangers communities, the police warn, not the mythic self-defense being peddled as concealed carry.”
