Last week's horrific shooting at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon, was a stark reminder that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. A 16-year-old monster behind the shooting, John J. Griffin II, used a shotgun to murder three young special needs children and a teacher before Kaylub Giamanco — a gun owner — shot and killed Griffin, saving numerous lives.
Gun-free zones are the problem, and the Second Amendment Foundation debunked claims that these "sensitive places" (another term for gun free zones) are necessary because armed citizens are fundamentally dangerous.
— SAF (@2AFDN) October 22, 2026The basis for states passing broad "sensitive places" laws (also known as "gun free zones") is that supposedly, having armed citizens in such places is fundamentally dangerous.
That belief is not based on reality. As our new factsheet shows, state-level government data proves… pic.twitter.com/7DjnXsBlXU
"As our new factsheet shows, state-level government data proves that Americans with carry permits are overwhelmingly law abiding, committing crimes at a rate many times lower than the general population," the post reads. "As some of the examples we highlight demonstrate, they have also occasionally been called upon to save lives in horrifying situations, and they rose to the occasion to do just that. Laws that focus on disarming such law-abiding individuals are fundamentally misguided and should be repealed."
The graphic includes three examples, including Silver Rail Elementary School, of when a mass shooter was stopped by a law-abiding citizen with a gun. This includes the Greenwood Park Mall food court where on July 17, 2022, a gunman with a rifle opened fire. Elisjsha Dicken was carrying his firearm and stopped the shooter about 15 seconds after the shooting began. Dicken engaged the shooter from 40 yards and fired 10 shots, hitting the gunman eight times. On December 29, 2019, a gunman opened fire at the West Freeway Church of Christ. The head of the church's volunteer security team, Jack Wilson, fired one shot and ended the attack. And, of course, Kaylub Giamanco, who stopped the Silver Rail shooter before police arrived.
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Anti-gun leftists will argue that carry permit holders commit gun crimes, but the data show an "exceedingly low crime rate" among those with carry permits.
But we don't just rely on heroic anecdotes: the factsheet provides data from five different states proving the exceedingly low crime rates of those with carry permits. pic.twitter.com/lihppi2Vd7
— SAF (@2AFDN) October 22, 2026
In Texas, 6.2 percent of adults over the age of 21 are license holders. Just 0.75 percent have violent convictions. The "violent offenses" included murder, kidnapping, robbery, assault/aggravated assault, sexual assault, other sexual-contact offenses, and injury to a child, elderly, or disabled person. In other states, the numbers are similarly low. Minnesota only had 342 convictions of permit holders among 381,405 permit holders. In Florida, 6,661,440 licenses have been issued since 1987, and just 24,251 have been revoked for any reason and not reinstated (as of September 30, 2026).
Yet in something that is despicable — but completely on-brand for the anti-gun Left — the Violence Policy Center created a "Concealed Carry Killers" website. It lists 3,365 deaths since 2007 and blames them on "concealed carry killers."
There's just one problem with that: 2,185 of those deaths are suicides in which the individual didn't harm anyone besides themselves. The Second Amendment Foundation calls this "reprehensible."
— SAF (@2AFDN) October 22, 2026The antigun side has made only one attempt to rebut these points: the Violence Policy Center's "Concealed Carry Killers" website.
That website lists 3,365 deaths since 2007 that it blames on "Concealed Carry Killers."
But 2,185 of those deaths are suicides in which the… pic.twitter.com/oIWfqJf8Qr
Regardless, even if you count the remaining 1,180 cases as cold-blooded murderers (some are accidents, and some cases are still pending), that would be a murder rate of 0.3 per 100,000 among those with carry permits, a small fraction of the murder rate of the population as a whole (4.1 per 100,000 in 2025)," the posts reads. "In essence, the Violence Policy Center has only proven that those with carry permits are the most peaceable demographic around, with a murder rate that would make them the safest nation in the world if they were their own country."
This is the entire purpose of the Second Amendment: for a free and law-abiding citizenry to defend itself from violence of all kinds. The Left would prefer that we didn't have those rights, and they will lie and skew the data to attempt to strip us of our rights. But facts don't lie, and not only are concealed carry permit holders law-abiding, they're also lifesavers.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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