Violence Policy Center: Firearms Industry and Gun Lobby are Targeting Your Children

Late last week the Violence Policy Center, one of the more radical gun ban lobby groups, released a report titled “Start Them Young” — How the Firearms Industry and Gun Lobby Are Targeting Your Children.  The report claims to show ongoing efforts by the firearms industry and pro-rights lobbyists to market guns to grade-school age children for “financial and political gain.”  And just how do firearm manufacturers do this?  Here as some of the ways sighted in the report:

• Creating and marketing guns specifically to children, including the use of mascots like Crickett rifle’s “Davey Crickett;”
• Promoting 22 caliber assault rifles with plastic incorporated into the design for “less recoil and lighter weight;”
• Marketing guns in “child-friendly colors,” including pink, purple, orange, red, yellow and blue;
• Encouraging parents to introduce firearms to their children “at the earliest possible age;”
• Producing a number of “marketing research publications” that urge manufacturers and dealers to “target programs toward youth 12 years old and younger;”
• And including children and teens in “3-Gun competitions,” where shooters “use three types of firearms on a timed circuit.”

Being the parent of two children who love to go shooting, I didn't need any help from the "industry" to get them interested in the sport.  Both of them started out with a Daisy Red Ryder and my oldest daughter progressed to hunting rifles.  When a friend gave me one of those "22 caliber assault rifles" as a Christmas present last year, my oldest daughter immediately gravitated to it, not because the "gun lobby" marketed it to her, but because she could adjust the stock to fit her perfectly and she could go through a box of ammo in little to no time.

 

Is the industry making products that can be used by youth?  Of course, they'ed be foolish not to.  But the fact that kids are taking up the sport of shooting probably has more to do with their parents choices, or possibly an organization like the YMCA that includes marksmanship in the local summer camp in the Richmond area, than any marketing ploy by manufacturers or the "gun lobby."

Hat tip to Guns.com.

Debunking the Violence Policy Center's Not So New Claims on Armed Self Defense

On Wednesday, the anti-rights Violence Policy Center trotted out what they call a "new" report that makes the claim gun owners rarely use firearms for self defense.  VPC based the report on FBI data on "justifiable homicides."  As the NRA and Dr. John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center pointed out however, this is just a recycled claim the anti-rights lobby has used for years.  Using justifiable homicides data is problematic for a number of reasons, not the least of which is it totally discounts the fact that a number of people defend themselves with a firearm without ever firing a shot.  Lott also points out that only about 1 percent of police departments report justifiable homicides by police and it is even worse for civilian justifiable homicide.  To take it a step further, Dr. Lott noted that even for those states that do report such data, very few localities within those states actually compiled the numbers.

Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz have conducted a more reliable survey on the topic that can be found here.

 

 

Violence Policy Center's Misleading Concealed Carry Study

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) comes out with a study each year that purports to show concealed carry permit holders are dangerous.  Yesterday the New York Times editorialized about the latest study in the usual fawning manner they do with anything having to do with gun control.  Even if VPC's number of 722 "non self-defense" deaths caused by 544 concealed carry permit holders were correct, you would still be talking an infinitesimal percentage of the estimated 11 million permit holders in the country.  But, as Bob Owens over at BearingArms.com points out, there are a lot of caveats that go with the particular incidents VPC includes in their study:

In order to demonize the practice of concealed carry, the Violence Police Center ran into the insurmountable hurdle of not being able to find a significant number of concealed carriers using their legally concealed weapons to commit violent crimes.
In order to pad their report, VPC was forced to:

1. include incidents where concealed carry was in no way part of the alleged crime.
2. include incidents where there wasn’t even a conviction, but just allegations of a crime.
3. include unsubstantiated, apparently mythical “crimes” without a named victim or perpetrator.

Owens also noted that and some of the people that VPC called murderers were either exonerated in court or had charges against them dismissed.

There is no getting around the fact that concealed carry permit holders are some of the most law abiding people in the country.  That's why groups like VPC have to use "slight of hand" tactics to try and make their case.  People like the editors at the New York Times won't check VPC's numbers.  Thankfully there is the new media to get the truth out.

John Lott Takes Apart Violence Policy Center's "Concealed Carry Killers"

It's been a claim by the gun ban lobby without facts to back it up for the last several years that people who have concealed carry permits are dangerous to society.  The Violence Policy Center has come out with some new numbers that John Lott effectively picks apart over on National Review's web site.

It seems the Violence Policy Center piles on any numbers that it can get hold of, anything that can be related to concealed-carry holders. For instance, it counts legitimate self-defense cases in which no charges were filed or the permit holder was charged and later exonerated.

All in all, the VPC has managed to triple-count claimed cases of permit holders killing people, and the vast majority of cases it includes in its list — such as legitimate self-defense shootings or suicides not related to permitted concealed handguns — shouldn’t be counted to begin with.

It's nothing new for the gun ban lobby to cook the numbers.  It's nice to have Dr. Lott to provide the factual information to help refute the lies.  To help counter the bogus numbers that people like VPC and Bloomberg put out. Dr. Lott and other researchers are setting up the Crime Prevention Research Center to uncover and counter the misleading claims.

Even Gun Control Advocate Recognizes Bloomberg Money is Not the Answer

The New York Times had this story yesterday on where efforts for gun control stand after the defeat of two Colorado state legislators who supported gun control. I found the last line of the article interesting. Tom Diaz, formerly senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center told the Times he thought it would be a long time but that more regulation would come. Then he added this:

“I think that in the long term, the nation is going to reject this unbridled kind of gun culture,” Mr. Diaz said. “But I think it’s going to take a long time. Colorado is a true test for those actually in the trenches, but it might also be a wake-up call — nothing is easy, and pouring money in from Bloomberg is not a magic solution.”

Dan Casey Joins Chorus Against Eddie Eagle

On July 1, a number of new laws will take effect in the Commonwealth. One of those new laws, House Bill 1217, was introduced by Del. Lynwood Lewis, (D-Accomack County) which allows local school boards to offer firearm safety education programs in the elementary grades. The State Board of Education must establish a standardized program of firearm safety education for students in the elementary school grades and the bill requires that the program objectives incorporate, among other principles of firearm safety, accident prevention and the rules of the National Rifle Association's Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program.

For some reason, this seems to cause some editorial writers heartburn. Not long after the bill passed with Governor McDonnell's amendments, Michael Shannon with the Prince William News and Messenger wrote:

In this latest outrage, the General Assembly has directed the state's Board of Education to produce a curriculum for teaching gun safety to elementary school children that incorporates the advice of the National Rifle Association.

I guess it should not surprise me that the Roanoke Times' Dan Casey has joined in. Since his favorite target for the last year, online training qualifying for the training required for a concealed handgun permit, has not lead to mass shootings, another target was needed to fill his OP/ED space. Casey infers that it's payback for the NRA election activity on McDonnell's behalf last year.

The new law prescribes a gun-education curriculum for Virginia elementary schools, based upon materials provided by the National Rifle Association's "Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program."

Late in the game, Gov. Bob McDonnell made a seemingly innocuous change that effectively limited curriculum input to the NRA.

That came after the NRA's political action committee spent $622,000 last fall on radio, television and online ads promoting McDonnell for governor.

The change to which Casey refers is the correction of an error made by the Legislative Services staff who drafted a Senate amendment to the bill at the request of Senator Richard Saslaw. Casey makes a passing reference to the fact that the amendment was drafted incorrectly and named an organization (National Crime Prevention Center) that did not exist. It is likely that Saslaw told the LS staff National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) but NCPC made it known that they did not have an up-to-date firearm safety curriculum so Governor McDonnell amended the bill back to the form in which it passed the House. The Senate overwhelmingly concurred.

Casey also did not miss the chance to slip in Josh Sugarmann's (Violence Policy Center) comparison of Eddie Eagle to Joe Camel as if the Eddie Eagle program would encourage children to be interested in guns. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both of my elementary school aged children know the message delivered by the program and have the DVD provided by the NRA. I have yet to find either of them standing in front of my gun safe trying to figure out how to open it to gain access to one of the many firearms stored inside.

Casey tries to come off as not being anti-gun all the while being very snarky when he writes on the topic. One sure gets the feeling reading his articles that he fits in very nicely with the anti-gun editors of the Roanoke Times.

Gun Ban Crowd Following "Concealed Handgun Incidents"

Chicago radio station WBBM reports that the Violence Policy Center has a new web site that tracks the illegal use of firearms by concealed carry permit holders.

According to a new Violence Policy Center Web site:

Concealed handgun permit holders killed eight law enforcement officers and 77 private citizens (including 10 who killed themselves) from May 2007 through October 2009.

Not to down play the the deaths, but we are supposed to believe that the fact that a relative handful of the millions of CHP holders committed crimes is reason enough to not allow the vast majority of law abiding gun owners to protect themselves and their families?

Kristin Rand said in a press release announcing the new site:

This new Web site makes clear that contrary to the false promises of the gun lobby, the simple and deadly fact is that state concealed handgun systems are arming cop-killers, mass shooters and other murderers.

I long ago stopped being amazed at the spin these people put on their press releases. The hyperbole in Rand's comment cannot even be quantified. The vast majority of CHP holders are law abiding. Austin Gun Rights Examiner Howard Nemerov researched the likelihood of Texas Concealed Handgun License (CHL) holders committing a crime and he found:

Overall, CHLs are over 9 times more law-abiding than the non-licensee population, and non-licensees are over 10 times as likely to commit a major FBI violent crime (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault).

I'm willing to bet that research will translate to other shall issue states.

VPC "Study" a Load of BS

This news release from the Violence Policy Center tries to make the claim that concealed handgun permit holders committed a number of crimes between 2007 and 2008. But, the so-called study is not even a scientific method.

Because most state systems allowing the carrying of concealed handguns in public by private citizens release little data about crimes committed by permit holders, the VPC reviewed shooting incidents as reported by news outlets. It is likely that the actual number of fatal criminal incidents involving concealed handgun permit holders is far higher.

They cherry pick incidents that will grab the most headlines and don't bother to provide context for the incidents or note that (if the incidents do involve individuals with CHPs) that the number is a fraction of number of total permit holders in the country.

Update: The Minneapolis Gun Rights Examiner does a great job debunking this so-called study. Hat tip to VA-Alert.