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hill billy
12-21-2009, 7:53 AM
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/violence-policy-center-makes-it-up-as-they-go-along-%E2%80%94-again/

Violence Policy Center Makes It Up as They Go Along — Again

The gun-control group that sprang from the Joyce Foundation is using false information and bad research to demonize concealed carry permit holders.

Posted By Bob Owens On December 21, 2009 @ 12:28 am In . Column2 02, Gun Control, Legal, US News | No Comments

Would you trust the statistical and factual reporting acumen of an organization that can’t even tell the difference between someone being dead or alive?

No, this isn’t about the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia or the other bad actors of Climategate (though it could be). This is about a little organization that Barack built. Not ACORN (though it could be). This is about the Violence Policy Center (VPC), one of the gun-control organizations our B+ president [1] helped fund as a board member of the left-wing Joyce Foundation.

For the past few months, the VPC has decided to target concealed carry permit holders as particularly bad, evil people. This approach is quite puzzling to anyone actually familiar with concealed carry permit holders, a group that tends to be a bit older, a bit whiter, and a bit more likely to buy Fleetwood Mac albums than most. As a subset of the citizenry, concealed carry permit holders are also more likely to be law-abiding that the general population.

And so it was with a certain degree of satisfaction that I picked apart “Concealed Carry Killers [2],” a series of poorly formatted and tabulated PDFs that is part of the Violence Policy Center’s crusade to misrepresent and demonize those who carry concealed handguns (CCH).

Actually, that isn’t entirely accurate.

In its reporting, the VPC doesn’t restrict itself to reporting homicides committed by a permit holder drawing and firing his or her concealed weapon. Of the 85-person body count they claim (we’ll get back to that in a moment), concealed handguns only accounted for 30 of the fatalities.

Twenty-seven of the deaths were caused by rifles. One was a brutal beating. Another was a vicious strangling. Read again closely, dear reader. The Violence Policy Center isn’t trying to demonize the actual practice of carrying concealed handguns in its reporting; it is trying to demonize concealed carry permit holders.

And they’re willing to misrepresent, lie, cheat, and (presumably) steal to accomplish that goal. But don’t take my word for it. Open up a copy of the VPC’s “Private Citizens Killed by Concealed Handgun Permit Holders: May 2007 to the Present [3]” and learn from the tragic story of Christine and Arthur Burroughs:

On March 8, 2008, Christine Burroughs, naked and covered with blood, ran to neighbor Alice and Lance Lather’s house seeking refuge from her enraged husband, Arthur Burroughs. Burroughs followed his wife to the home, fatally shooting Lance Lather. Burroughs then barricaded himself in the neighbors’ bathroom with his wife. A SWAT team and hostage negotiator were called to the house, but Burroughs shot and killed his wife and then himself. Christine Burroughs had previously told Alice Lather that her husband wanted to kill her because she wanted a divorce. Burroughs had been previously employed in loss prevention and security for T.J. Maxx and had possessed a concealed handgun permit since at least 1999.

The crime was a brutal case of domestic violence that expanded beyond one family’s tragedy when Christine Burroughs fled from her husband and sought sanctuary at the home of their neighbors — unwittingly drawing them into the violence. Lance Lather paid with his life for Arthur Burroughs’ inability to cope with the thought of his wife divorcing him. In the end, Arthur Burroughs killed himself as well. The tragedy of the situation was not lost on Christine Burroughs [4], who considers Lance Lather her hero, and credits him with saving her life [5].

No, Christine Burroughs wasn’t killed by her husband in their neighbor’s bathroom.

She was never even shot. She survived a beating and watched two men’s lives end, and that is horror enough. But now the widowed Mrs. Burroughs has become something else — a symbol of what happens when the agenda-driven biases of true believers corrupt pseudo-scientific research.

Sadly, the non-death of Christine Burroughs was just part of the Violence Policy Center’s attempt to demonize carry permit holders as a group. It can’t even claim to be sure that its including valid permit carriers among those they would demonize.

While the VPC cites Humberto Delgado as having a North Carolina-issued concealed carry permit, the fact is that he faced charges for carrying a concealed weapon [6] in addition to the homicide charges. This rather strongly suggests he did not have a valid permit.

A second person mentioned in the VPC report as a carry permit holder is William Littleton, who was issued a permit in North Carolina in 1998. But like most states, North Carolina’s carry permits must be renewed periodically. North Carolina requires permits to be re-issued every five years. The VPC offered no evidence that Littleton renewed in his permit in 2003 or in 2008 as would have been required. Ten years ago is apparently close enough.

Is the Violence Policy Center attempting to claim that people “tainted” by obtaining concealed carry permits will one day be overcome with a murderous rage? Actually, that seems to be precisely the point of “Concealed Carry Killers [2]” — demonizing a government-issued document. But the inclusion of Delgado and Littleton is just another example of shoddy, agenda-driven, faux research.

In addition to not being able to tell the living from the dead, or even to verify that the killers they cited had valid concealed carry permits, the VPC compounds its errors by failing basic mathematics — re-counting the dead of other crimes and padding the total.

Jason Keith Hamilton, who killed a police officer and two civilians in his rampage, apparently had his two civilian victims counted twice in the VPC’s final tally. Hamilton’s victims are listed on both the law enforcement [7] and private citizens [3] pages. When the number of dead on the private citizens page is accurately totaled, the number of dead is not the 77 the VPC claims. When you subtract the non-death of Christine Burroughs that the VPC did not verify and the addition of two fatalities that the VPC’s own tabulations don’t support, the number of civilian dead is 74 — bringing the the total number of actual deaths to 82, not 85.

At this point it seems reasonable to conclude that the VPC didn’t use page numbers on their documents because the math was too hard.

And before we leave this sorry state of affairs, it is also worth mentioning that Charles Podany was listed as one of these killers in the original VPC report debunked in August [8], but the man he killed is no longer included in the VPC’s victim tally. The 49-year-old Podany was cleared in court [9] of shooting 24-year-old Casey Landes, a man who had attacked him. The case was textbook proof of Florida’s “stand your ground” law. Podany’s listing does go to prove another point about the research generated by this organization: you don’t have to be guilty of a crime to show up on the VPC’s list; you just have to be charged. It appears that from the VPC perspective, gun owners are guilty until proven innocent.

No doubt the VPC’s reporting should be judged with the same skepticism.

JDoe
12-21-2009, 8:48 AM
Good stuff hill billy! We need to expose the gun grabbers misrepresentations at every opportunity.

Purple K
12-21-2009, 11:13 PM
I'll be spreading this one around.

Pvt. Cowboy
12-22-2009, 10:56 AM
I made a post here long ago about the 'Violence Policy Center' and who Josh Sugarmann and Tom Diaz are, for those who weren't aware.

The notion of a 'Violence Policy Center' conjures images of an actual 'Center' somewhere in Washington DC replete with double wide oaken front doors, a reception area with comfy couches and periodicals like 'The Nation' strewn around on a coffee table, executive offices, a legal department, office staff walking about wearing coats and ties coming from and going to meetings, and expensive carpet that your shoes sink into up to your ankles. This charade is compounded by the haughty self-appointed titles of the staff: Josh Sugarmann refers to himself as the 'Executive Director', along with his henchman Tom Diaz the 'Senior Policy Analyst'... as if there's a 'Junior Policy Analyst' at VPC headquarters.

What the VPC really amounts to is one guy renting a post office box at a strip mall stationary store called 'US Printing and Copying' at 1730 Rhode Island Avenue in Washington DC. They're sandwiched on all sides by a florist's shop, a 'Blimpies' sub sandwich joint, and an Allstate Insurance claims adjuster. If you go there, and I know people in DC who've visited the location, there's nobody there. Just a PO Box in a stationary and package store that sells Scotch tape, styrofoam packing peanuts, and Garfield the Cat pencil erasers. The girl behind the counter can help you with sending your package by FedEx or UPS, and that's it.

Josh Sugarmann has been running a one-man show of screedy little missives of thoroughly invented crime statistics faxed to the New York Times for years. Naturally, every time something significant happens in America involving firearms, the liberal media runs straight to the VPC for Josh's angle --- as if they couldn't read his trash on a weekly basis on his 'Huffington Post' blog. I don't even think that Tom Diaz even bothers to participate in the VPC anymore unless he can get some TV time or a printed reference in a newspaper.

I'm told by people who know people who knew him, that Josh Sugarmann was a perpetually sour assclown who sits on the floor of his apartment with his legs crossed 'Indian-style' while smoking pot and constantly bemoaning all the suffering in the world, tries to act like 'sensitive ponytail guy' around whatever chicks happen to be present, and is continually railing against those who live their lives based in 'Epicurean Materialism'. Blecch.

He does this VPC thing rather than having to get a real job. He's been living for years on handouts from wealthy do-gooder liberal elitists he's got on a mailing list.

Basically, he's one book that you can judge by the cover, though this is a fairly old picture of him:

http://images.absoluteastronomy.com/images/topicimages/j/jo/josh_sugarmann.gif

Glock22Fan
12-22-2009, 11:12 AM
I think we should copy his operation and have a "Violence Prevention Center." Rent a P.O. box, write a screed about how violence, particularly firearm violence, is ruining our nation and threatening the children and how it is our sworn mission to get this violence off our streets and provide legal help for those who need it for the same purpose. Get a website, of course. Send this around to George Soros and all the other usual suspects and get some benjamins. Then publish all the stuff we can that the best way to get violence off the streets is to arm civilians and defend them in court if things go wrong Lots of statistics, of course, all slanted our way but possibly while appearing to slant the other way so the benjies keep coming (the punters will probably never notice the discrepancy).

hill billy
12-22-2009, 12:30 PM
I think we should copy his operation and have a "Violence Prevention Center." Rent a P.O. box, write a screed about how violence, particularly firearm violence, is ruining our nation and threatening the children and how it is our sworn mission to get this violence off our streets and provide legal help for those who need it for the same purpose. Get a website, of course. Send this around to George Soros and all the other usual suspects and get some benjamins. Then publish all the stuff we can that the best way to get violence off the streets is to arm civilians and defend them in court if things go wrong Lots of statistics, of course, all slanted our way but possibly while appearing to slant the other way so the benjies keep coming (the punters will probably never notice the discrepancy).

I'd be down with that.:D

rojocorsa
12-22-2009, 12:56 PM
Tom Diaz full of s___.

I'll never forget a couple years back when I first got into RKBA, I was reading a VPC brief in a PDF about "evil 0.5 inch diameter caliber rifles" that can shoot down air-planes and whatnot. What I'll never forget is the fact that the report stated that the size of a .50 BMG (12.7x99mm) cartridge was that of a "small ketchup bottle." This ignorant statement was like the icing on the cake that proves how full of s___ they are.

*Maybe it would be as long as two ketchup packs put together, but so what?

bigcalidave
12-22-2009, 2:43 PM
That's awesome information Pvt. Cowboy !!! How are they (he?) still doing business!

Mayhem
12-22-2009, 4:52 PM
VPC has no credibility, They have begin doing this since their beginnings. They know they are wrong and don't care they are wrong. As long as they reach out to the no-nothing masses and make a few them anti's it's all good in their book. This doctrine is used by all the Anti Orgs, But the VPC is one of the worse ones.

Sutcliffe
12-22-2009, 6:23 PM
Even a cell phone camera would be useful. Make a mirror website that will show up if anybody googles them and show the masses exactly what kind of questionable operation it really is.

383green
12-22-2009, 7:03 PM
What I'll never forget is the fact that the report stated that the size of a .50 BMG (12.7x99mm) cartridge was that of a "small ketchup bottle."

Really, a .50BMG round is a lot closer to a Tabasco bottle than a ketchup bottle.

And that gives me an idea for distinctive packaging for hot sauce... :chef:

Lagduf
12-22-2009, 7:53 PM
For the past few months, the VPC has decided to target concealed carry permit holders as particularly bad, evil people. This approach is quite puzzling to anyone actually familiar with concealed carry permit holders, a group that tends to be a bit older, a bit whiter, and a bit more likely to buy Fleetwood Mac albums than most. As a subset of the citizenry, concealed carry permit holders are also more likely to be law-abiding that the general population.

LOL...what?

Only whites obey the law?

Shotgun Man
12-22-2009, 8:01 PM
LOL...what?

Only whites obey the law?


I think hillbilly was merely pointing out that it is curious that VPC would attack a stalwart, respectable demographic (i.e., CCW holders) that happens to include whites.

Second post and you're attacking people?

Lagduf
12-22-2009, 8:04 PM
I think hillbilly was merely pointing out that it is curious that VPC would attack a stalwart, respectable demographic (i.e., CCW holders) that happen to include whites.

The race of the CCW holders should have no bearing on, well, anything. It was just a comment that struck me as odd, otherwise it was quite a good write up - and yet again an example of an "anti-" group that, frankly, really has no idea about what they're supposedly against.

Isn't the first thing you learn in debate is to be able to argue the other side. Silly VPC.

Second post and you're attacking people?

Just pointing out something I thought to be "odd."

Let's not start attacking people for their post count and whatever perceptions those bring. We're all on the same side when it comes to firearms. Other than that, well, we might not all see eye to eye.

bigcalidave
12-22-2009, 10:09 PM
You tied together two separate parts of his statement to end up with "only whites obey the law?" Hillbilly didn't say that, you did.

Pvt. Cowboy
12-23-2009, 7:33 AM
Let's not start attacking people for their post count and whatever perceptions those bring. We're all on the same side when it comes to firearms.

No the hell we're not. It's been demonstrated time and again.

Dirk Tungsten
12-23-2009, 7:55 AM
Anybody else thing lagduf is another troll account? I mean that username is "FUD gal" spelled backwards....didn't we have a female troll here a day or 2 ago?

Pvt. Cowboy
12-23-2009, 8:27 AM
Anybody else thing lagduf is another troll account? I mean that username is "FUD gal" spelled backwards....didn't we have a female troll here a day or 2 ago?

Certainly. The first thread the liberal respondee comes into is one about the 'Violence Policy Center' and then makes the oft-heard phrase from our lefty counterparts posing as RKBA activists: "We're all on the same side".

I have no doubt that many lefty posters here, regardless of their post count, are nothing more than trolls who've been sent here by way of some unseen seminar. This isn't the only gun board it's been happening to in recent years.

Flopper
12-23-2009, 1:22 PM
LOL...what?

Only whites obey the law?

And by that logic, only older Fleetwood Mac fans obey the law :rolleyes:

This isn't the Democratic Underground; you're gonna have to try quite a bit harder to be a successful 5th Column on these boards.