People continue to die at the hands of private citizens with permits to carry concealed handguns, says the Violence Policy Center (VPC). Concealed handgun permit holders are responsible for at least 2,490 deaths not involving self-defense since 2007. Details can be found on Concealed Carry Killers (concealedcarrykillers.org), an ongoing online resource. Overall, the website documents 2,231 fatal, non-self defense incidents since May 2007 in 40 states and the District of Columbia, resulting 2,490 deaths. Thirty-seven of the incidents were fatal mass shootings as defined by federal law (three or more victims killed), resulting in the deaths of 183 victims. At least 24 law enforcement officers have died at the hands of concealed carry killers since May 2007.
VPC's Kristen Rand said, "Concealed carry permit holders are supposed to be the ‘good guys with guns,’ but actual real-world experience consistently reveals the opposite to be true. The great experiment that began in Florida in the 1990s of allowing guns in public spaces can now be declared a proven failure.” VPC says that because there is no comprehensive record of deaths involving concealed handgun permit holders and many states bar the release of such information, the center's examples are taken primarily from news reports along with the limited information collected by a few states, so they likely represent a small fraction of actual events. The website does not include the few incidents that are determined to involve self-defense or where no verdict is reached at trial. In the vast majority of the 2,231 incidents, (2,104, or 94 percent), the concealed carry permit holder either committed suicide (1,505), has been convicted (512), perpetrated a murder-suicide (64), or was killed in the incident (23).