Fraud Alert

Lately, the anti-gunners have been quoting “Shootingtracker.com” as a “source” in claiming that “there’s a mass shooting ever day in the US”.

Of course, “mass shootings” – a shooting in which four or more people are killed or injured, no matter what the motivation of the shooter/s, is not the same as a “spree killing” or “rampage killing”; most “mass shootings” involve shootings that are offshoots of other crimes; robberies, gang activity and the like.

Spree killings – like Orlando, San Bernardino, Red Lake, Tuscon, Columbine, Virginia Tech and the like – have “murdering people at random”, or “targeting a specific group” (gays, Jews, Americans, the military) as the sole goal of the episode (along, sometimes, with political terrorism).

Anyway – I had a hunch about the site.  So I checked it out.

Sure enough – the shooting I wrote about last week, in South Carolina, where a citizen with a carry permit shot and wounded a man who’d shot and injured three others at a bar, ending what could have been a much bigger, much uglier crime?

Sure enough.  They counted it.

How much you wanna bet “Protect” MN calls this “just another mass shooting” as a result?

9 thoughts on “Fraud Alert

  1. This was a different incident, Mitch. This one involved Urban Yoots shooting it out in the parking lot (someone was probably refused entrance to the VIP area…all these clubs have VIP areas, usually elevated platforms with velvet ropes to keep the riff raff off the couches. More VIP’s always be showin’ up than there are couches to seat them), missing their targets (shocker) with the resulting errant rounds penetrating walls and the people standing behind them.

  2. If you want something to shout about, check out this NYT editorial, which was also cited on “Gun Violence Archive” :

    Concealed Carry’s Body Count

    In America’s endless debate about gun rights versus public safety, there should be no disputing the hard facts in a new report on gunshot fatalities showing that at least 722 non self-defense deaths since 2007 were attributable to individuals with legal permits to carry concealed weapons.

    More gravely, the study found that the fatalities included 17 law enforcement officers shot by people with legal permits along with 705 slain civilians.

    I thought WHOA!, and hustled over to check the report link out:

    (note the link “ccwkillers”)

    Page Not Found! 404 — Fancy meeting you here!

    Don’t panic, we’ll get through this together. Let’s explore our options here.
    You can return ← Home or search for the page you were looking for.

    So I searched for it…had to be there, it’s the NYT; just a typo in the link, right?

    http://www.vpc.org/?s=report&submit=Go

    Nope.

    How did they get away without retracting this piece of garbage?

  3. Swiftee – I clicked on your fixed link and saw the 404 page. Out of a sense of morbid curiosity, I scanned down the page and saw a link to Concealed Carry Killers, and here is their new website: http://concealedcarrykillers.org/

    So VPC bought the domain and moved their page/report to it.

    My question is, did all of these reported “concealed carry killers” initiate the shootings? Or are they counting self-defense shootings by carry permit holders in the same category as criminal shootings?

  4. Hooo boy. Just taking a quick gander at the “about” page, makes my head spin. Some notables:

    Since May 2007, the VPC has identified at least 29 mass shootings committed by a concealed handgun permit holder. There has been only one mass shooting in which a concealed carry handgun permit holder successfully intervened from 2000 through 2013, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation report A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States Between 2000 and 2013.

    I think their definition of “mass shooting” is different than ours. Unless they’re calling “a permit holder killing both attackers” a “mass shooting”. And “only 1 mass shooting where a permit holder successfully intervened from 2000-2013?” That’s a bald face outright lie.

    3/8 of the deaths were suicides.

    The total number of fatal incidents involving concealed carry killers is almost certainly far higher.

    “Almost certainly”. I’m sure “almost certainly” holds up in a court of law, right? Undeniable, concrete evidence.

    Concealed Carry Killers does not include the small number of incidents that are eventually determined to involve self-defense or where no verdict is reached at trial. All such incidents are removed from the database’s ongoing totals. Additional VPC research has shown that the use of guns in self-defense is extremely rare, whether the perpetrator has a concealed carry permit or not. In America, a gun is actually far more likely to be used in a homicide, suicide, or even stolen than used in a justifiable homicide.

    I seem to remember seeing a breakdown where after all suicides, gang shootings, self defense shootings, and other invalid/unrelated shootings were removed, there were something like 1712 shootings in 2015. My question is, which is higher? Those 1712 shootings that are ‘directly’ related to the availability of guns that don’t have other mitigating factors or circumstances, or justifiable homicides?

  5. “Don’t panic, we’ll get through this together.”

    Could that text possible be any more condescending?

  6. Thanks Bill. If this is the “report” cited by the NYT, someone needs to be fired. The instances in this “report” have been deubunked:

    http://bearingarms.com/bob-o/2015/10/26/washington-post-claims-29-mass-murders-concealed-carriers-lied/

    Looks like the WaPo got sucked into repeating the same false information.

    And I have been unable to find one instance where a CCWP holder shot a copper, much less 17.

    We all know the MSM is in the bag for the left, we all know they lie and exaggerate, but when they are caught so red handed, why isn’t there more outrage? Where are the gatekeepers?

  7. I’ve looked at Brady/VPC’s “concealed carry killers”, and one thing that struck me was that a LOT of the killings were not enabled by concealed carry laws at all, having occurred at home. Like Bill notes, murder-suicides with family issues. Too bad, to quote our host, that there isn’t a whole profession out there with printing presses and websites devoted to finding and publishing the truth. We need one.

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