President Barack Obama might soon nominate the chief of the Chicago office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to lead the Justice Department agency, The Washington Post reported.

Special Agent in Charge Andrew Traver would be the bureau’s first Senate-confirmed director, if approved. Temporary appointees have held the post since a 2006 law gave the Senate the ability to confirm the director.

Two Illinois members of Congress have written letters in support of Traver, a 20-year veteran of the ATF, according to Ticklethewire.com.

Former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan was the last nominee for the post. But Senate Republicans held up the George W. Bush nominee over concerns about the ATF’s handling of small gun owners. Sullivan served as acting director from 2006 to 2009.

ATF Deputy Director Kenneth Melson has led the agency since 2009. He initially served as acting director, but his title was changed because the law limits how long acting heads can run federal agencies.

According to Hartford Courant & Fox CT Staff Reports on Aug. 3rd:

Nine people are dead in a workplace shooting at a family-owned beer and wine wholesaler, police said.

Sources said Omar S. Thornton, 34, was a driver for Hartford Distributors and was described by a Teamsters Union official as a recent hire and a “disciplinary problem.”

“The union was bringing him in to meet with the company to remedy the problem,” said John Hollis, a Teamsters official. “He started shooting.”

Thornton shot a number of people and then shot himself with a .223 caliber semiautomatic rifle as police approached and is dead, sources said. Two people were shot outside the building and five were shot inside, police sources said.

Hollis declined to describe the nature of the disciplinary problem, and he said he wasn’t certain if the meeting had taken place when the shooting started. A law enforcement source said Thornton had been suspected of stealing from the business.

Joanne Hannah, who lives in the Enfield neighborhood where Thornton lived until about a month ago, said her daughter Kristi had dated Thornton for eight years. Thornton, who is black, had complained about being racially harassed at work. Thornton brought his complaints to his superiors, who did nothing about it, she said her daughter told her.

Steve Hollander, a member of the family that founded and owns the company, is one of the wounded, a police source said. He was shot in the neck, the source said.

Another shooting victim was identified as Bryan Cirigliano, 51, of Newington, by a man at Hartford Hospital who said he was Cirigliano’s brother. Bryan Cirigliano is the president of the Teamsters Local 1035 that represents drivers at Hartford Distributors.

Another victim was identified as Victor James, who died at Hartford Hospital, officials said.

Gloria Wilson, 86, said her son Victor would have turned 60 on Aug. 30.

James, of Windsor, had two adult daughters and four grandchildren.

Wilson said she had already heard about the shootings when her other son called with the news that Victor James was dead.

“I just got praying he wasn’t one of them, and he was,” she said.

“There wasn’t a better family man,” Wilson said.

James was planning to retire from Hartford Distributors this year after working for the company as a truck driver for 30 years. He planned to work around his home and tinker with an old car he had, Wilson said.

James grew up in Providence and Cranston, R.I. He had one brother, Robert James, Wilson said.

“He loved his children and his grandchildren,” she said. “He’d take the grandchildren out for movies. He devoted his weekends to them.”

Two school buses were brought in to transport employees away about 9:30 a.m. They were brought to Manchester High School, where family members gathered.

The shooting occurred shortly before 7:30 a.m. in a facility of the beer and wine distribution company, one of the state’s largest. At the time, there were about 35 or 40 people in the office and warehouse, said Brett Hollander, the director of marketing for the company.

“Our shifts were just changing,” said Hollander, who said the shooter was an employee.

“There are definitely some people that are shot, some people that are dead,” Hollander said, speaking in a tense and shaken voice about 8:30 a.m. Employees were in a warehouse across the street when police entered the building where the shooter was located.

The East Hartford police tactical response team was training at 7:33 a.m., when the department received a general call for help, said Officer Hugo Benettieri, police spokesman. As a result, the neighboring department was one of the first police agencies at the scene. The team helped with “building entry,” he said.

Thornton received two speeding tickets, in February 2007 and December 2008, that led to DMV suspending his commercial driver’s license for three months, according to DMV records.

Hartford Hospital was treating the only three victims of the shooting that were hospitalized, officials said. One died on his way into surgery.

Shortly after the shooting, a thick column of black smoke could be seen coming from the building. It later turned to white, then stopped as firefighters were on the scene. The fire was caused by a forklift that tipped over when its operator was shot, a law enforcement source said.

A number of bomb squad vehicles were seen entering the property about 9:20 a.m. A state police dispatcher said they were there to check the suspect’s car.

Hartford Distributors is at 131 Chapel Road, near the border of South Windsor and Manchester in the area Buckland Hills Mall and Interstate 291. The company is one of the state’s largest beer and wine distributorships, carrying hundreds of brands. The company merged last year with Franklin Distributors, a South Windsor company. Employees are represented by the Teamsters union.

Hartford Distributors was founded by Jules Hollander, the father of the current president, Ross Hollander, and grandfather of Brett, the marketing chief, and Steve, who was reported to have been shot. The company was located on Tolland Street in East Hartford for many years before moving to Manchester about 15 years ago, said U.S. Rep. John B. Larson.

According to the Los Angels Times July 13th:

In a new ad, the group cites Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s recent vote to uphold a handgun ban. Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee delays its nomination vote a week.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s decision last month to oppose expanded gun rights under the 2nd Amendment is being cited by the National Rifle Assn. as reason for senators to oppose Elena Kagan, President Obama’s second nominee to the Supreme Court.

The NRA released an anti-Kagan ad this week that shows Sotomayor seemingly assuring senators during her confirmation hearing last year that she supports individual gun rights. Citing her vote in June to uphold a handgun ban in Chicago, the ad urges members to call their senators and “tell them not to fall for the same trick twice.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee met Tuesday to consider Kagan’s nomination but, at the request of its Republicans, put off a vote for one week. She is expected to win support from the panel’s 12 Democrats; the committee’s seven Republicans, except possibly Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, are expected to oppose her.

Last year, the NRA opposed Sotomayor’s confirmation, and White House aides say the gun lobby’s intervention cost her up to 10 votes. Nonetheless, Sotomayor was approved by a 68 to 31 vote in the Senate. Kagan, the solicitor general, is expected to win confirmation next month, but on a closer vote.

Kagan, like Sotomayor, told senators that she viewed the court’s recent rulings on gun rights as “settled law.” This suggested — but did not promise — she would support the legal principle in future cases.

Conservative critics and at least a few liberals questioned Sotomayor’s decision to sign with liberal justices to a dissenting opinion that mostly rejected the notion of individual gun rights protected by the Constitution.

“The Framers did not write the 2nd Amendment in order to protect a private right of armed self-defense,” wrote Justice Stephen G. Breyer in the opinion, which Sotomayor joined. “There has been, and is, no consensus that the right is, or was, ‘fundamental.’ ”

However, the 5-4 majority ruled that the 2nd Amendment protects the “fundamental” right of an individual to have a handgun at home, and it said this right applies “equally” to cities and states, as well as the federal government.

The NRA ad features Sotomayor telling senators, “Like you, I understand how important the right to bear arms is to many, many Americans.…I understand the individual right fully that the Supreme Court recognized in Heller,” referring to a ruling striking down a handgun ban in the District of Columbia vs. Heller.

The Heller ruling in 2008 technically only applied to the federal government, since the District of Columbia is a federal city. Last month’s McDonald vs. Chicago ruling said the individual right to a handgun applied to cites and states as well.

Curt Levey, a lawyer for the conservative Committee for Justice, said Sotomayor’s “vote in McDonald was a wake-up call” for 2nd Amendment activists. “She basically left the impression she supported it, and then did something different.” He said the NRA’s opposition to Kagan would “keep the Republicans on board [in opposition] and it may peel away a few Democrats.”

In recent years, many liberal activists voiced a similar criticism of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. The two told senators they supported the court’s precedents, but in several instances since, they have voted to curtail or overrule past decisions.

(We are pleased to post the following press release from the Violence Policy Center).

For Immediate Release:  Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Contact:  Marty Langley, 202-822-8200 x109, mlangley@vpc.org

Washington, DC–A Florida mass shooting that resulted in the murder of four women, an innocent 17-year-old gunned down by a 61-year-old man in a case of mistaken identity, and a bass player from a cover band accused of murdering the female host of the party where his band was playing are among the June additions to Concealed Carry Killers, a Violence Policy Center (VPC) on-line resource that tallies news reports of killings by concealed handgun permit holders.

Since May 2007, concealed handgun permit holders have killed at least 175 individuals–including nine law enforcement officers–in 26 states.

Of the 104 incidents that resulted in the deaths, in half (52) the concealed handgun permit holder has already been convicted or committed suicide after the shooting.  Of the 52 cases still pending, the vast majority (46) are charged with criminal homicide, two were unintentional shootings, three are still under investigation, and one involved a concealed handgun permit holder who was also shot and killed during the incident.  Of the 104 incidents, 16 were mass shootings.

A summary of each of the 104 incidents is available at http://www.vpc.org/ccwkillers.htm, clicking on each category leads to a state-by-state breakout for the incidents with current known status.  To review all killings by concealed handgun permit holders, click on “Total People Killed by Concealed Handgun Permit Holders.”  While the incident summaries of the few concealed handgun permit holders who are eventually found not guilty of their crimes are listed on the site, those numbers are not included in the VPC’s totals.

Among the new incidents included in the June update are:

• Florida: On June 6, 2010, permit holder Gerardo Regalado, 38, committed Hialeah, Florida’s worst mass shooting:  killing four women, including his estranged wife, and wounding three others at the Yoyito Cafe-Restaurant.  Regalado killed himself after the attack.

• Missouri: In May 2010, concealed handgun permit holder Johnnie Pulley, 61, was convicted of shooting and killing 17-year-old Brandon Colenburg after Pulley mistook Colenburg for the person who had beaten him on a public transit bus in April 2009. The mother of one of Colenburg’s friends testified that he had been at her home at the time of the original assault on Pulley.

• Pennsylvania: On June 12, 2010, Paul Hansen, bass player for the cover band Disorderly Conduct, allegedly shot and killed Melissa Barnes, 28, the host of the party where the band was performing. Barnes had reportedly confronted Hansen after being told that he had threatened a party guest.  Hansen allegedly drew a 40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun and shot Barnes once in the head.

Violence Policy Center Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, “In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in McDonald v. Chicago earlier this week, the gun lobby is already threatening to challenge restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons.  These incidents clearly demonstrate why states and local governments must be able to prohibit the carrying of concealed handguns.  The alternative is to force states and cities to license mass shooters, cop killers, vigilantes, and suicidal individuals to carry guns in public.”

Because most state systems that allow the carrying of concealed handguns in public by private citizens release little data about crimes committed by permit holders, the VPC reviews and tallies concealed handgun permit holder killings primarily as reported by news outlets.  It is likely that the actual number of fatal incidents involving concealed handgun permit holders is far higher.

***

For non-fatal concealed carry incidents follow the VPC on Twitter — http://twitter.com/VPCinfo — and visit the Violence Policy Center’s Concealed Carry Killers page on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/#!/pages/Violence-Policy-Center-Concealed-Carry-Killers/258069527568

The Violence Policy Center (www.vpc.org) is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury.

–END–?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Andy Pelosi (914-629-6726), email:  andy@gunfreekids.org

(June 28, 2010, New York)  – Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments.  The Court considered the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago, where the City of Chicago prohibits private ownership of handguns. The case was remanded to the lower court for further consideration in line with today’s interpretation of the Second Amendment.  The McDonald decision follows the Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a handgun for self-defense in the home.

Andy Pelosi, executive director of GunFreeKids.org issued the following statement:

“While we disagree with today’s ruling by the Court, which could have the effect of depriving state and local governments of the ability to chose how best to protect their residents, it does appear that reasonable firearms laws can survive.  In the McDonald decision, Justice Alito writes, “We made it clear in Heller that our holding did not cast doubt on such longstanding regulatory measures as ‘prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill,’ ‘laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.’ … We repeat those assurances here.  Despite [the city of Chicago's] doomsday proclamations, incorporation does not imperil every law regulating firearms.”

Despite Justice Alito’s statement in McDonald that [incorporation does not imperil every law regulating firearms], we anticipate an onslaught of lawsuits filed by the gun lobby challenging most, if not all, of the laws regulating firearms on the state and local levels.

After the pundits have their say about what the McDonald decision means or does not mean, one fact will remain, and that is: 80 people will be killed by guns in America by this time tomorrow.  What are we as a society going to do about this national disgrace?”  The choice of what to do is up to us – do we value the gun more than we value the life?”

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Supreme Court Stills Holds that Common Sense Gun Laws Are Constitutional and Can Be Enacted to Save Lives and Protect Communities

For Immediate Release

Contact: Thom Mannard, Executive Director, ICHV tmannard@ichv.org

Scott Vogel, Communications Director, States United to Prevent Gun Violence scott@supgv.org

(June 28, 2010, Chicago) – The Supreme Court extended the scope of the Second Amendment today in McDonald v. City of Chicago, and remanded Chicago’s handgun ban back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit for further review.  It appeared that the city’s 28-year-old handgun ban will likely be struck down. The challenge to Chicago’s handgun ban was filed immediately after the Supreme Court stripped the District of Columbia’s own handgun ban in its Heller decision in 2008.

Thom Mannard, Executive Director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence issued the following statement:

“Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling today it is absolutely important to emphasize that the conservative majority held that strong and effective gun laws are still constitutional and can be enacted.

“While we fundamentally disagree with the Court, today’s decision is a major opportunity to move away from the narrow, divisive and ideological debate over the interpretation of the Second Amendment and instead work to pass common sense gun laws that will save lives and protect our communities.

“We believe this ruling affirms a host of effective laws and viable solutions to preventing gun violence.  The Court’s opinion clearly allows for requiring background checks on all gun sales, restricting carrying loaded guns in public, mandating gun owners to register firearms and undergo training, allowing states and municipalities to license gun dealers, regulating military-style semiautomatic assault weapons, enacting waiting periods, limiting gun sales per month, and forcing gun manufacturers to employ “microstamping” technology on all new gun sales, among other measures.  Furthermore, we are confident that when the gun lobby litigates and challenges these policies the courts will ultimately uphold the constitutionality of these gun laws.

“The debate over Chicago’s handgun ban is not, and never was, an abstract legal argument, but about the right of the city of Chicago and other municipalities to enact sensible solutions to keep deadly guns out of our communities.  The truth is that, based on overwhelming research, allowing Chicago’s residents to possess handguns will dramatically increase the risk of gun suicides, students gaining access to handguns and likely carrying them to school, and certainly unintentional shootings by toddlers and children who find weapons.  Chicago was right to enact its handgun ban in 1982, and Mayor Richard Daley was justified in ardently defending the law.

“Our country continues to have misplaced priorities when it comes to violence and security.  As a comparison, after nine years of fighting the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. military death toll reached the grim 1,000 mark. In Illinois alone, the same number of people die every year from gun violence.

“Every year 30,000 Americans die from gun violence, 70,000 people are shot and injured, and more than 350,000 people are victims of armed robbery or aggravated assault with a firearm.  This sheer scale of destroyed lives and families is a national disgrace.

“Finally, the Court’s ruling to extend the scope of the Second Amendment has national implications.  The gun lobby is using this decision to further its real agenda, that they want anyone to have any gun, anywhere, at any time – regardless of the proven risk to police and the public.  Their unstated motive is to enhance the profits of the gun industry by encouraging individuals to believe they need a multitude of guns and are seeking nothing less than the complete dismantling of our nation’s gun laws for their own political and financial gain.  Lawmakers in state legislatures and in Congress must utilize the Supreme Court’s decision to press for common sense gun laws for the safety and security of the America people.”

– END –

For Immediate Release

Contact: Andy Pelosi, 914-629-6726, andy@gunfreekids.org

(June 26, 2010, New York) – The University of Colorado (CU) Board of Regents voted yesterday to appeal its campus gun ban to the State Supreme Court. In April of this year the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the gun lobby who sued CU, arguing that a 1994 university policy banning concealed weapons violated the state’s Concealed Carry Act of 2003. The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus praised the Board of Regents for their leadership in standing up to the gun lobby and choosing to protect the personal safety and security of its students, faculty, staff and university community.

Andy Pelosi, the Director of the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus issued the following statement:

“We applaud the University of Colorado Board of Regents for taking decisive action to appeal the Court of Appeals’ ruling in order to protect its college students and faculty. The next step is for the Colorado Supreme Court to accept this case and recognize and assert that the Appeals Court’s decision overstepped the Board of Regents’ constitutionally appointed role to set policies governing the health and safety issues on its campuses. This role should include the ability to keep guns off campus and provide a safe learning environment to foster research, education and innovation.

“No student or professor should have to live with the fear of getting shot or be intimidated just because the gun lobby’s agenda wants to force the carrying of loaded handguns on college campuses. The Board of Regents had a clear choice whether to side with the gun lobby or the personal safety of its students, faculty and staff – and the latter rightfully won.

“The gun lobby has continually failed over the last three years to sway state legislatures across the country into forcing loaded handguns on college campuses. As a result of these failures, the gun lobby is adding a new tactic – pressing their dangerous cause in the courts. Part of the reason for these failures is that the overwhelming majority of people think carrying loaded handguns on college campuses is outrageous and extremely dangerous, including students, parents, administrators, campus safety officials, and lawmakers.”

The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus, a project of GunFreeKids.org, is urging colleges and universities to band together to oppose the gun lobby’s agenda to push guns onto college campuses. To date, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and 157 individual colleges and universities in 33 states have joined the Campaign.

View list at: http://www.keepgunsoffcampus.com/list.html

– END –

But to carry the thought forward, what does it say when a special interest — in this case, the gun lobby and NRA — dictates virtually the entire domestic policy agenda of Congress? Who exactly is controlling who? In light of the NRA’s outrageous special exemption to the pending campaign finance reform law, the “Disclose Act”, we must ask who is really in charge of our government?

Do we really have civilian control over our own government– like we do over our military — or is the United States Congress and Senate simply the board of directors of the NRA?

A damning article on June 17th in the Washington Post sheds light on House Democrats and their pathetic excuse for failing to stand on principle. Instead, Democrats suck up the NRA which spends over 80% of its donations electing Republicans.

Another victory for the bulletproof NRA

Even with Democrats in control of Washington, the National Rifle Association usually gets what it wants.

Long regarded as one of the most powerful lobbying groups in town, the GOP-friendly NRA has had a remarkable series of political victories in recent months that underscore its continuing influence on Capitol Hill — no matter which party holds the reins and no matter what policy issues are involved.

The latest example came this week, when House Democrats announced a deal exempting the NRA and a handful of other large nonprofit groups from donor disclosure requirements in a proposed campaign-finance law. In exchange, the NRA agreed to back down from fomenting opposition to the bill.

In addition, the gun-rights group helped push legislation through the Democratic Congress last year that lifted a decades-old ban on carrying concealed weapons in most national parks and wildlife refuges. It also effectively scuttled congressional representation for the District by supporting pro-gun legislation attached to the bill; rebuffed attempts to stop the destruction of background-check records; and has blocked legislation to forbid gun purchases by people included on the government’s terrorist watch list.

The reason for the group’s recent successes? “It’s a well-known fact that it’s bad politics and bad policy to be on the wrong side of the gun issue,” said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam, adding that lawmakers are responding to strong support for Second Amendment rights among voters.

It’s a message the group regularly sends to members of Congress, particularly Republicans and centrist Democrats who view opposing gun restrictions as a key issue for their most-motivated voters back home. The NRA deal on campaign disclosures came three weeks after the Fairfax-based group sent a blistering letter to House lawmakers, warning that it would oppose the bill as written — and would hold yes votes against those who cast them.

With more than 4 million dues-paying members, the NRA has reported spending about $2.5 million on direct lobbying through its Institute for Legislative Action since the beginning of last year, according to disclosure reports.

Over the past 20 years, the group has contributed more than $17 million to members of Congress, with more than 80 percent of the money going to Republicans, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

But the gun lobby’s real influence is felt in areas not measured by official statistics, from vote scorecards used at election time to the millions spent on issue ads not documented in campaign reports. The group plans about $20 million in political spending this year, and the NRA’s annual budget is $220 million, Arulanandam said.

Those kind of numbers only add to the frustration of gun-control activists such as Kristen Rand, legislative director for the Violence Policy Center, which has a lobbying budget so small it doesn’t have to be reported. Rand said the NRA has built “an aura of power” around itself despite its shortcomings, such as the group’s failed campaign against President Obama in 2008.

“What the NRA has managed to do is turn an issue about life and death into an issue of pure politics,” Rand said. “They’ve done it by pushing this myth that they are much more powerful than they really are.”

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, called the NRA disclosure exemption “a demonstration of blatant political cynicism” by House Democrats. “It seems there is a new condition that must be met before almost any federal legislation is allowed to proceed: make sure the legislation doesn’t upset the gun lobby bosses,” Helmke wrote on his blog.

The two gun-control groups joined 43 other liberal-leaning organizations Wednesday in opposing the NRA deal, writing in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that it “is inappropriate and inequitable to create a two-tiered system of campaign finance laws and First Amendment protection.”

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who negotiated the disclosure exemption that applies to the NRA, said that the deal was not aimed entirely at the gun lobby and that several other large groups, including the AARP seniors group, would also be covered. He declined to discuss whether the NRA is unusually prone to getting its way.

“The NRA and some other groups had expressed concerns,” Van Hollen said, adding that negotiators could have drafted a narrower compromise if they intended to benefit only the gun lobby.

Arulanandam said the NRA does not have it as easy as critics suggest. “Nothing is easy for us,” he said. “Whatever we are able to get, we have to work very hard for.”

By Josh Sugarmann

WASHINGTON — EDITOR’S NOTE: The writer is addressing the question, Does the open display of firearms at protest rallies threaten to turn America into a Wild West’ society?

Are armed mobs becoming socially acceptable? Watching television coverage of gun owners eager to brandish their firearms in public spaces, that appears to be the desired goal of “open-carry” advocates.

Exploiting loopholes in state laws that don’t explicitly ban the open carrying of handguns and other firearms is an omission of default rather than design—who would think people would actually want to live out their Wild West fantasies in real life—open-carry advocates take delight in thumbing their noses at societal norms by brandishing their firearms.

Some go much further, portraying their display of weaponry as a visual warning shot against perceived enemies.

At a “Restore the Constitution Rally” held in April outside the nation’s capital, one speaker warned the tiny crowd of fellow “patriots” of those “pushing the country toward civil war” and declared “they should stop before somebody gets hurt.” In May, white supremacists openly carried guns at a small counter-event to a peaceful protest of Arizona’s new immigration law.

One armed protester, who characterized Hitler as a great white civil rights leader, asked, “Where on the planet is there one country that’s for white people? There’s not. See, we have nowhere to go.”

The protesters insisted they needed their loaded guns for protection and that they were prepared to use them if necessary.

Surprisingly, the willingness of open-carry advocates to test the boundaries of common sense and geography has even brought rebukes from pro-gun leaders.

After the appearance of open-carry advocates outside town meetings on health care with President Obama, Second Amendment Foundation head (and convicted felon) Alan Gottlieb stated, “I would like to see gun owners think twice before they go to a rally like that with a firearm strapped on. It doesn’t necessarily put our best face forward.”

Yet open-carry advocates—from nose-thumbers to anti-government activists to white supremacists—all share a common belief that guns make them safer. Carrying guns may make THEM feel safer from the demons that populate their world, but what about the rest of us? The reality is that their bumper-sticker logic quickly fades in the light of real-world facts.

Despite promises that those who carry guns in public are uniquely law-abiding citizens who protect public safety and aid police, a Violence Policy Center research project available on the web at (vpc.org/ccwkillers.htm) reveals that since May 2007, concealed handgun permit holders have killed at least 157 private citizens in addition to nine law enforcement officers.

And just last month, Jesus Gonzalez, an avid open-carry activist, was charged with homicide and attempted murder for shooting two men on Mother’s Day. Gonzalez claims he shot the men in self-defense. The surviving victim, paralyzed from the waist down, says he and his uncle were unarmed and merely walking to a friend’s house when Gonzalez threatened them and then opened fire.

On a larger scale, empirical data reveals that exposing oneself and others to guns only enhances the likelihood of firearm-related death and injury.

Recently released federal statistics show, as they have historically, that states with high rates of gun ownership have higher rates of overall gun-related death. For 2007, the most recent year available, gun-loving Louisiana, Mississippi and Alaska led the nation in overall gun death rates.

The same federal data also shows that in states where gun ownership is low and exposure to firearms limited, overall gun death rates are far lower. That same year, Hawaii had the lowest gun death rate in the nation followed by Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. Louisiana’s overall gun death rate of 19.87 per 100,000 was seven times higher than Hawaii’s rate of 2.82 per 100,000.

When the issue is life and death, feelings should never trump facts—even when there’s an armed mob arguing otherwise.

Josh Sugarmann is executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a national nonprofit educational organization working to reduce firearms violence in America. Readers may write him at Violence Policy Center, 1730 Rhode Island Ave. NW, Suite 1014, Washington, D.C. 20036; website: www.vpc.org.

These are actual pictures of the shooting as it occurred

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Friday, June 11, 2010

CONTACT:  Marty Langley, 202-822-8200 x109, mlangley@vpc.org

At Least 65 Innocent People Have Been Killed in Recent Mass Shootings Involving Concealed Handgun Permit Holders

Washington, DC–Gerardo Regalado, the 38-year-old man who shot seven women, killing four, earlier this week at a Hialeah, Florida, restaurant is at least the 16th person licensed to carry a concealed handgun reported to have committed a mass shooting (three victims or more) since May 2007 according to Violence Policy Center (VPC) research.

The 15 prior mass shootings, two of which occurred in Florida, are detailed on Concealed Carry Killers (http://www.vpc.org/ccwkillers.htm), an on-line resource that tallies from news reports killings by concealed handgun permit holders. Not including this most recent shooting, the website reports that since May 2007 concealed handgun permit holders have killed a total of at least 166 people, including nine law enforcement officers.

According to news reports, Regalado, who killed himself after the shooting, had a concealed handgun permit–even though relatives described him as “pure evil” with a history of abusing women and having served “hard time” in a Cuban prison.

Prior to the Hialeah shooting, concealed handgun permit holders had claimed 61 innocent lives in 15 mass shootings since May 2007 (six of the shooters killed themselves, four have been convicted, and five cases are pending). Regalado’s attack brings the total number of innocent victims reportedly killed by concealed handgun permit holders in mass shootings during this period to 65, including a 2009 attack at a Pennsylvania health club where, like Regalado, the shooter targeted women–killing three and wounding nine.

The Hialeah shooting is the third known mass shooting in Florida by a concealed carry permit holder since September 2007.  In November 2009, concealed handgun permit holder Paul Michael Merhige allegedly opened fire at his family’s Thanksgiving dinner, shooting six relatives and killing four, including his 76-year-old aunt, his pregnant sister, and a six-year-old cousin.  In May 2009, concealed handgun permit holder Guillermo Zarabozo was found guilty of the September 2007 murders with an accomplice of the four crew members of the charter boat Joe Cool and was sentenced to five consecutive life terms in prison plus an additional 85 years to be served consecutive to the life terms.

In response to this latest tragedy committed by a concealed handgun permit holder, VPC Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, “Concealed handgun permit holders don’t prevent mass shootings, they commit them. How much blood must run in the streets before state legislators act to disarm these rampage shooters?”

***

The Violence Policy Center (www.vpc.org) is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury. The VPC’s Concealed Carry Killers web site is located at http://www.vpc.org/ccwkillers.htm.

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