LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND STATISTICS

My blog “Killer Cops?” (9-28-09) dealt with a Houston Chronicle article on a growing trend in shootings by the police in Harris County. In the article, a spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney said. “I don’t want to blame the legislature, but the laws have become quite a bit more flexible about a person’s ability to carry a weapon,” she said. "If more people have the access and it becomes easier to carry them, there tends to be more shooting and more situations involving police officers.”

Here was my reply to what she said: As for the Harris County District Attorney’s spokesperson, she is full of shit! She said she does not want to blame the legislature, but that’s exactly what she’s doing. To blame the laws that allow licensed citizens to carry a gun is a real crock of shit! Those are not the people who have been involved in police shootings. Hey stupid, it’s the criminals, and they cannot get licensed!

Yesterday the Chronicle published a letter by Kristen Rand, the legislative director of the Washington D.C. based Violence Policy Center, a national educational foundation working to enhance gun control in America. In the letter Rand said that the Harris County spokesperson was correct. Rand wrote: “Experience shows that concealed handgun permit holders are a direct threat to police. Research by the Violence Policy Center has identified at least eight law enforcement officers who have been killed by concealed carry permit holders nationwide since May 2007."

Rand is clearly disingenuous by trumpeting the eight killings of officers by concealed weapon license holders. British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and American author Mark Twain both explained that "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Rand is a damn liar! Here’s why: According to the Lubbock Avalanche Journal, Texas' number of permits is rapidly approaching 400,000 and as of July 31, Florida had 763,781 license holders. That’s well over a million license holders in just two states. 46 additional states permit the concealed carrying of weapons in some form or another. How many millions of permit holders can there be in this country?

Rand’s statistics don’t prove that concealed carry holders are a “direct threat to police.” In fact, Rand's statistics prove just the opposite. The killing of any police officer is a terrible tragedy. But when only eight officers nationwide are killed by concealed weapon license holders since May, 2007, that is a statistical zero when taken in the context of millions of license holders.

The district attorney's spokesperson is just plain stupid. Rand, on the other hand, is a devious scheming liar. Rand’s lies are typical of the tactics used by anti-gunners and gun control organizations. Unfortunately, a good part of the public is fooled into believing that “state legislatures need to substantially revise these [concealed carry] laws to protect first responders and innocent citizens,” as Rand put it at the end of the letter.