On the afternoon of 22 December in the WalMart on Skibo Road, someone stole a firearm an open carrier. No shots were fired. The thief is reported to have ran away with the firearm. From fayobserver.com . . .
About 3 p.m., Fayetteville police spokeswoman Asia Cannon said, inaccurate information based on radio scanner traffic began circulating about a shooting at the Walmart. Officers arrived and discovered that a man had grabbed a gun off another man who was open-carrying the weapon. The man who grabbed the gun then ran off.
Guns are stolen from concealed carriers about as often as from open carriers. Anecdotally, I read of an open carrier or concealed carry theft about once a year. I’ve not encountered a single case where an open carrier was shot by someone stealing their gun, or shot after the gun was stolen.
Some 17 million Americans have carry permits. Millions more carry a gun without a government permission slip, either legally illegally.
Assuming half of the 17 million armed Americans carry at some point during the year, one of whom is the victim of a criminal disarm, the odds against having a gun stolen while carrying (in any given year) are 17 million-to-one.
About 17,250 people were murdered in the United States in 2016; 49 murders per million people per year. All things being equal — which they most certainly are not (think: Chicago gang banger) — an armed American is 400 times more likely to be murdered than have their gun stolen while carrying it. Use a retention holster and you can round down the odds of a gun grab to zero.
©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. Gun Watch