Violence Policy Center “Concealed Carry Killers” Website.

Due to privacy restrictions protecting gun license holders there is no compilation of gun violations by licensed concealed carry holders. I guess that’s how the NRA can boast that people with a license to carry guns are not involved in gun violence. The only way to determine the number of shooting incidents by people with concealed carry licenses are news reports. The Violence Policy Center was originally going to list all incidents of gun violence by people with concealed carry permits but the sheer volume of incidents made it impossible to follow. They only list murders.

“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 as reported by news outlets. It is likely that the actual number of fatal criminal incidents involving concealed handgun permit holders is far higher.”

The web site, CCW Killers, is updated monthly.
There are five categories.

Law Enforcement Officers Killed by Concealed Handgun Permit Holders
May 2007 to the Present

Private Citizens Killed by Concealed Handgun Permit Holders
May 2007 to the Present

Total People Killed by Concealed Handgun Permit Holders
May 2007 to the Present

Mass Shootings Committed by Concealed Handgun Permit Holders
May 2007 to the Present

Murder-Suicides Committed by Concealed Handgun Permit Holders
May 2007 to the Present

“In 2009, the Violence Policy Center began an ongoing research project to identify killings beginning in May 2007 to the present by individuals with concealed handgun permits. As the result of a massive campaign led by the gun lobby, almost all states maintain a veil of secrecy around those who have been issued permits to carry concealed handguns. Therefore, the VPC is forced to rely primarily on news accounts for reports of killings by concealed handgun permit holders and subsequent legal proceedings.”

“Click on the tally for each category to be linked to vignettes describing the circumstances for each killing, listed by state.”

http://www.vpc.org/ccwkillers.htm

Also see:
NRA Quietly Winning Battles For Looser Gun Laws
ERIK SCHELZIG | 12/12/09 12:10 AM |

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/12/nra-quietly-winning-loose_n_389684.html

I would argue that the Republican Party is not “on the ropes” but down for the count.

June 25, 2009
Sanford Case a New Dose of Bad News for Republicans
By JIM RUTENBERG
WASHINGTON — Republicans were just starting to breathe a little easier.
More here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/us/25repubs.html?hp

I would argue that the Republican Party is not “on the ropes” but down for the count. The Republicans used the ladder of racism to climb to the top. That ladder fell and broke into pieces. One of those pieces is the Republican Party. Some others are “Reagan Democrats” and white supremacist organizations. People like Karl Rove and AM talk radio extremists like Hal Turner and Rush Limbaugh are carrying pieces of the ladder.

It’s true that the Southern Democrats once owned that ladder, but they dropped it with the Civil Rights Act and Ronald Reagan picked it up in Philadelphia Mississippi supporting “States Rights”.

There is a difference between people who register to vote as Republicans and the Republican Party. It is more of a chasm than a difference. Most of the people in Chester County who call themselves or register as Republican are not avid fans of people like Hal Turner; an extremist talk show host who has just been arrested by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. They are what as known as Eisenhower Republicans. President Obama is much more like President Eisenhower than Adlai Stevenson.

CRIMINAL COMPLAINT USA vs.HAL TURNER:
http://www.box.net/shared/j4t9c297zk


The Democratic Party has been migrating to the “center” of US politics. Eisenhower supported the “New Deal” and thought that Republicans like Barry Goldwater were extremists that could never represent Republicans. The Democratic Party has now matched the beliefs and philosophy of Eisenhower Republicans. The present Democratic Party is in general to the right of President Eisenhower's beliefs. That is the reason that Republicans here continue to flock to the Democratic Party and leave the Republican Party here in Chester County to be supported by a few insane extremists and some others who allegedly could lose big if there was a change at the county level.

I think the best description of the present state of USA politics is found here:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid6555681001?bctid=27017295001

Age of Crime Gun Possessor

I excerpted a part of the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative YCGIIA National Tracing Center (NTC)’s Crime Gun Trace Report 1999. It may be the latest report. In my opinion the ATF was severely neglected by the Bush Administration.

"Juvenile Possessors(ages 17 & Under)-- 9.3%
Youth Possessors (Ages 18-24) -------------- 34%
Adult Possessors (Ages 25 & Older)-------- 56.7%"
From-Crime Gun Trace Report 1999/span>>

http://www.box.net/shared/l9a17oj4pg

For information on one initiative that could be adapted locally to reduce youth gun violence, see this report:

"Gun Violence Programs: Directed Police Patrols

Directed police patrols were first tried in Kansas City, Mo., in the early 1990s. Kansas City police increased traffic enforcement within a neighborhood experiencing high levels of violent crime and, in doing so, seized 65 percent more illegal guns. This led to a 50-percent decrease in gun-related crime."
http://www.ojp.gov/nij/topics/crime/gun-violence/prevention/directed-patrols.htm

Want to know where firearms used by Pennsylvania criminals originate:

ATF Pennsylvania, Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Office of Strategic Intelligence and information Data Source: Firearms Tracing System:

http://www.atf.gov/firearms/trace_data/2007/pennsylvania07.pdf

ATF Home page:
http://www.atf.gov/index.htm

Outside my house

Coatesville Police and I think State Troopers are regularly patrolling my neighborhood. It seems like several times per hour.

My son just came home just a few minutes ago. As soon as he passed the Coatesville border; a car followed. He went around the block to park on the right side. When he stopped in front of my house police asked for ID. They said they stopped him because he circled around the block.

I think they are stopping everyone. They are all in plain clothes and plain cars.

My son said the town is locked down.

I don’t mind any inconvenience. My son doesn't either. It is a lot better than waking up to a burning home.

I am a little re-assured after last nights meeting

I am a little re-assured after last nights meeting, but not because of anything that I heard at the meeting. You see, except for Joe Carroll the meeting was mostly the usual self praise and talk about coming together. This time the coming together talk is genuine. I can do without the narcissistic self praise. It’s one of the most repulsive things about our city council and Harry Walker.

State and Federal Government cannot except for a Declaration of Marshal Law force themselves on to a municipal government. Let me make something as clear as I can:

The Coatesville City Administration did not call or go to the Commonwealth or Federal Government or Chester County DA Joe Carroll and ask for help. It was more like: You will ask for help. We will help you. Do not try to stop us.

The City Administration’s role in giving aid to its citizens is now just a formality. The Governor, the Federal Government and through District Attorney Joe Carroll, the County is helping us. That is why I feel a little better about our city.

It is not that difficult for me to explain what I think happened to Coatesville.

Just 5 years ago we were a town full of promise. We were on the cusp of a $700 M redevelopment.

Coatesville has one operating passenger and freight track coast to coast railroad line and one short line freight that could be expanded to the passenger service from Wilmington, DE to Reading, PA that it once had.

We have an airport that will soon have direct international flight capacity.

We have a population of about 12,000 with the infrastructure in place for 20,000 people.

We have quick road connections to Interstate North and South roads.

We are centrally located within one of the ten wealthiest Counties in the USA.

Through its Redevelopment Authority Coatesville owns many acres of former industrial land near very high road traffic intersections.

We are in the path of development from Philadelphia, PA from the East and Lancaster, PA from the west.

The Miami School of Architecture’s Knight Foundation for Community Building selected Coatesville for its 2004 Charrette. Only one community is selected per year:

http://www.coatesville.org/forms/charrettereport.pdf

Upper middle class drug users are within an easy drive to Coatesville. We are a mixed race community long trampled on by its wealthy White Anglo-Saxon neighbors. We have quick transportation to New York, NY, Philly and Baltimore. “Packages” can come by air to Scranton Airport down the NE Turnpike to Coatesville. All ways for “packages” have a quick 15 minutes in and out in Coatesville. Combine all that with the generations long tension between fear of murder and income from drug money and you have Coatesville as the multi-million dollar drug distribution center of Chester County. Nothing else comes close in Chester County.

The planned revitalization would have eventually lain to rest the county drug depot here.

I think that some people couldn’t let that happen.

Coatesville is crawling with police and investigators of all types

The ideas about a curfew or the National Guard in the streets of Coatesville would definitely stop the arsons here.

But Coatesville is not a town in Iowa. The next town is not 100 miles away. The arsonist or arsonists could just start fires in say, West Chester. Or he/they could just shut down for a year.

The ATF is here and Coatesville is crawling with police, local, State, Federal and private investigators. I have to drive around and check but I would bet that the drug dealers are all but shut down completely. At the very least they would have to take it indoors.

Am I being too cynical in saying that there is such a big turnout to get the arsonists because the multi-million dollar drug distribution business in Chester County is all but shut down and it’s killing the “off the books” economy here? Even the booster stores might have had to shut down.

The only good thing is that the roaches in City Hall are now in the national spotlight.