Gun Deaths Outpaced Motor Vehicle Deaths in 12 States

May 29 - Gun deaths outpaced motor vehicle deaths in 12 states and the District of Columbia in 2010, the most recent year for which comprehensive state-level data is available, a new analysis from the Violence Policy Center (VPC) shows. Nationwide, improved safety standards have steadily reduced traffic fatalities over the past decade, while firearm deaths (homicides, suicides, and fatal unintentional shootings) continue unabated.

Nationally in 2010, there were 31,672 firearm deaths and 35,498 motor vehicle deaths, compared to 28,874 firearm deaths and 42,624 motor vehicle deaths in 1999. More than 90 percent of American households own a car while little more than a third of American households contain a gun.

In 2010, gun deaths (including gun suicides, homicides, and fatal unintentional shootings) outpaced motor vehicle deaths in: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Washington (see below for the mortality figures for each jurisdiction). Data is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

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Examples of Non-Self Defense Deaths Involving Persons Legally Allowed to Carry Concealed Handguns Hit 508--VPC Concealed Carry Killers March Update

March 28 - At least 508 people, including 14 law enforcement officers, have been killed since May 2007 in incidents not ruled self-defense involving private citizens legally allowed to carry concealed handguns according to the March update of the Violence Policy Center's (VPC) Concealed Carry Killers on-line resource (http://www.vpc.org/ccwkillers.htm). Because no comprehensive data exists on such non-self defense killings, the victims in Concealed Carry Killers are just examples taken from news reports and the limited state data available of the unknown, untabulated number of similar incidents that routinely occur across the nation.

VPC Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, “The evidence is mounting that concealed carry permit holders perpetrate more crime than they prevent. Comprehensive data should be collected and released to the public so that the effect on public safety of issuing licenses to carry loaded handguns in public is measured by fact and not by the rhetoric of permit proponents.”

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New VPC Study Details How Lax Concealed Carry Laws Are Designed to Boost Gun Sales

Study Contains Gun Industry, NRA Quotes; Examples of Gun Industry Ads Including Kel-Tec Pistol Used In Trayvon Martin Shooting

April 2 - The lethal shooting of unarmed, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by concealed handgun permit holder George Zimmerman is the predictable result of an aggressive decades-long campaign by the National Rifle Association (NRA) to promote lax concealed carry laws and attendant "Shoot First" laws that boost gun industry sales according to a new Violence Policy Center (VPC) report,“Never Walk Alone”--How Concealed Carry Laws Boost Gun Sales" (http://www.vpc.org/studies/ccwnra.pdf).

Faced with a decades-long decline in household gun ownership, the firearms industry has worked to exploit these NRA-backed laws to re-sell old customers and entice new ones. As Tanya Metaksa, then-chief lobbyist for the NRA told the Wall Street Journal in 1996--"The gun industry should send me a basket of fruit--our efforts have created a new market."

Today, ads for concealed carry or "personal-defense" handguns permeate gun publications--both industry- and consumer-focused. The January 2012 issue of the NRA's monthly activist magazine, America's 1st Freedom, contains an ad for the very model of handgun used by Zimmerman to kill Trayvon Martin--the Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol. The ad features an array of the pistols in different finishes and urges readers to "Pick your favorite color." Described by its manufacturer as being designed with "maximum concealability in mind," the PF-9 is "one of the lightest and flattest 9mm ever made." An ad for a similar Kel-Tec concealed carry pistol, the P-32, in the July 2011 issue of Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement features the handgun lying on a table next to the owner’s car keys and spare change. Characterizing the handgun as "compact protection," the ad warns, "Don’t leave home without it!" On its website Kel-Tec states that it specializes in "handguns for concealed carry by law enforcement personnel and qualified citizens...." All of the company’s employees are members of the National Rifle Association.

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States with Higher Gun Ownership and Weak Gun Laws Lead Nation in Gun Death

Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska, Alabama, and Nevada Have Highest Gun Death Rates

Washington, DC--States with higher gun ownership rates and weak gun laws have the highest rates of overall gun death according to a new analysis by the Violence Policy Center (VPC) of just-released 2007 national data (the most recent available) from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

The analysis reveals that the five states with the highest per capita gun death rates were Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska, Alabama, and Nevada. Each of these states had a per capita gun death rate far exceeding the national per capita gun death rate of 10.34 per 100,000 for 2007. Each of the top-ranking states has lax gun laws and higher gun ownership rates. By contrast, states with strong gun laws and low rates of gun ownership had far lower rates of firearm-related death. Ranking last in the nation for gun death was Hawaii, followed by Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. (See rankings below for top and bottom five states. See http://www.vpc.org/fadeathchart10.htm for a ranking of all 50 states.)

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Meanwhile crackpot author John Lott has brought out a new edition of More Guns Less Crime. Glowingly reviewed by rightwing jounal Human Events. Here is a link to Who is Mary Rosh, just one site devoted to debunking Lott's odd research, and odder behaviour. Tom