Kansas Man, Presumably a Concealed Carry Permit Holder, Shoots Himself and Dies on the Way to the Hospital

Right-To-Carry Gun Laws Linked To Rise In Violent Crimes: Study

Huffington Post

Laws in all 50 states permitting people to carry concealed firearms in public have been connected to a rise in violent crimes, according to a new report from researchers at Stanford and Johns Hopkins universities.

The report, published in September and issued as a National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper last week, adds to a series of studies over the last decade tending to discredit the "more guns, less crime" hypothesis, which argues that right-to-carry laws serve as crime deterrents by allowing ordinary Americans to better protect themselves.

The new findings suggest that right-to-carry laws are "associated with substantially higher rates" of aggravated assault, rape and robbery, Stanford law professor John J. Donohue III, one of the study’s three authors, explained in a press release on Friday. Stanford law student Abhay Aneja and Johns Hopkins doctoral student Alexandria Zhang co-authored the report.

Among violent crimes, the most significant increase came in aggravated assault, which may have risen by nearly 33 percent, according to the report. The researchers also found that from 1999 to 2010, murder rates rose in eight states that adopted right-to-carry laws.

New Hampshire Man Slips on Ice Shooting Self; Death Ruled Accident

Local news reports

New Hampshire's attorney general says a Canterbury, New Hampshire, man died of an accidental gunshot wound to the head.

The report released Wednesday concludes that 53-year-old Mark Kelso's revolver accidentally went off before or after he slipped on ice on Feb. 23.

Attorney General Joseph Foster says Kelso was walking between his truck and a logging skidder when he fell and struck his head on the skidder's blade.

An autopsy revealed bullet fragments from a gunshot wound that entered through Kelso's face.

The report concludes Kelso may have been uncocking his gun when he slipped on the ice. It also states that homicide and suicide cannot be completely ruled out as possibilities; there was no motive nor evidence to support either of those causes. 

Alabama Concealed Carry Permit Holder Shoots Himself By Accident

Southern Beale

Alabama concealed-carry holder accidentally shoots himself in the leg while at the Sonic drive-thru:

A man was transported to the hospital after his gun accidently fired in the Sonic drive-thru and wounded him Tuesday night.

According to officials, Alexander City Police and Fire departments responded to a call at 8:52 p.m. Tuesday about a gunshot at Sonic, located at 174 Broad Street.

A 22-year-old white male, whose identity is being withheld, was wounded when his pistol fired accidently.

“He was in a car there in the drive-thru, and he was moving the pistol from the side door pocket to the glove box, and it went off and accidentally shot him in the thigh,” said Capt. Tommy Lovett with the Alexander City Police Department.

Americans Who Carry Concealed Weapons Keep Accidentally Shooting Themselves in Public Bathrooms

City Lab

• On September 6, an off-duty cop accidentally fired a round inside the restroom of a Target in Honolulu. The bullet bounced off a stall door before drilling another stall. He allegedly called 911, but the incident never appeared in the police department's public reports, leading TV station KHON2 to wonder if somebody tried to cover up the mishap.

• In June, a veteran detective with New Jersey's Camden County Prosecutor's Office shot himself in the leg at his office's loo. Informs the South Jersey Times: "Prosecutor's office spokesman Jason Laughlin confirmed the accidental shooting on Monday. However, he said he could not confirm a Philadelphia Inquirer report stating the detective was seated or about to sit when the gun fired."
• A man was walking to the bathroom (OK, this one squeaks by) in April in Attleboro, Massachusetts, when the gun in his pocket went off. The bullet hit him and then struck his wife in the foot, says the Sun Chronicle, sending both to the hospital.

• In December, a man had to be carted away in an ambulance from an Italian restaurant in Kentucky when his concealed weapon punched a new hole in his body. Reports the News-Enterprise: "He set his pistol on the toilet paper dispenser while using the restroom and it slipped off and shot him in the leg, said Elizabethtown Police Sgt. David Neary." 

• Last spring, customers at a Burger King in Manchester Township, Pennsylvania, were shocked by what sounded like a "cannon going off" in the men's room. The source, writes the York Dispatch, was a guy whose 9mm pistol discharged, sending him into a panic as he tried to flee through an emergency exit (and then, when it wouldn't open, the front door).

Utah Teacher with Concealed Carry Permit Accidentally Destroys the Porcelain Toilet

 

Michelle Ferguson-Montgomery

ABC News

A Utah elementary school teacher who was carrying a concealed firearm at school was struck by fragments from a bullet and a porcelain toilet when her gun accidentally fired in a faculty bathroom on Thursday, officials said.

The sixth-grade teacher at Westbrook Elementary School, in the Salt Lake City suburb of Taylorsville, was injured when the bullet struck a toilet and caused it to explode, Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley said.

Authorities initially thought the teacher had accidentally shot herself. They now believe she was injured when the bullet and toilet fragments struck her lower leg.

The teacher, identified as Michelle Ferguson-Montgomery, was in good condition Thursday afternoon in a Salt Lake City hospital, Horsley said.

Officials were still investigating how the gun discharged. "This just appears at this point in time to be an accident," he said.

Horsley said Ferguson-Montgomery has been a teacher with the school for 14 years but he did not have her age. She was carrying her gun legally with a concealed-firearm permit, Horsley said.

Utah is among the few states that allow people with concealed-weapons permits to carry guns in public schools, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Teachers are not required to disclose that they are carrying a weapon, and administrators are prohibited from asking if they carry or barring them from bringing their weapons.

So far, the negligent discharges by teachers seem to be outnumbering the school shootings thwarted. All we need now is one of the idiots to go crazy and shoot up the school themselves.

Bumbling Idaho Professor (not Student) with Concealed Carry Permit Accidentally Shoots the Himself - No Charges Expected

Local news reports

An Idaho State University instructor was wounded in the foot after a concealed handgun in the person's pocket discharged during a chemistry lab session with students in the room.

Police said the person had the proper permits to carry a concealed weapon on campus.

Idaho State University spokeswoman Adrienne King said there could be an administrative review after police complete their investigation.

King said the school has an alert system but didn't use it because police quickly determined the shooting was an isolated incident.

"It's unfortunate," ISU President Arthur Vailas told the Idaho State Journal. "I'm sure the incident was scary and embarrassing."

Despite opposition from every public university college president, lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year allowing retired law enforcement officers and people with concealed-carry permits to take firearms onto public college and university campuses but not into dormitories or stadiums.

Yeah, "scary and embarrassing," but given the extreme nonchalance with which this incident was met, don't expect the bumbling permit holder to be held accountable. It was just an accident.