People with concealed carry permits have committed at least 29 mass shootings since 2007

[SecularMotion]

Every time somebody goes and shoots up a college or a school or a theater or a church, gun rights proponents take to the airwaves to argue that if only more people had guns and brought them into more places, some of these tragedies could be prevented. Polling shows that these arguments may be working, despite plenty of evidence that "more guns, less crime" does not hold up to close analysis.

As Eugene Volokh discussed earlier this month, there are indeed documented instances of "good guys with guns" stopping mass shootings. He counted at least eight cases where armed civilians (not off-duty police) appear to have prevented mass shootings since 2007. As he notes, this is probably an under-count: some would-be active shooters may have been stopped in their tracks by a brandished weapon before the body count got too high.

John Lott's Crime Prevention Research Center notes a number of other instances of armed citizens stopping would-be criminals. But some of these instances involve off-duty law enforcement officers, who are specially trained for them. Others involve armed citizens stopping knife attacks, and other altercations including armed robberies that you wouldn't normally consider a mass shooting.

On the other hand, the Violence Policy Center has documented 29 mass shootings of three or more people since 2007 where the perpetrator was himself a concealed carry permit holder. Remember Craig Hicks, the man who allegedly killed three of his neighbors earlier this year in a possible hate crime? Concealed-carry permit holder. The man who shot up DC's Navy Yard two years ago? Concealed-carry permit holder. The man who went on a rampage at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, N.Y., in 2009? Concealed-carry permit holder.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/26/people-with-concealed-carry-permits-have-committed-at-least-29-mass-shootings-since-2007/