Crimes committed by licensed concealed carry holders are extremely rare, but one Chicago man broke the mold after committing a brutal murder-suicide, reports ABC 7.
The unidentified man was inside AmeriCash Loans with his ex-girlfriend around 2:30 p.m. when he opened fire. He shot his ex-girlfriend before turning the gun on himself.
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said responding police officers found two bodies inside. The woman had suffered several gunshot wounds and the male was shot once in the head. It looked like a domestic violence incident, but police later determined it was a murder-suicide.
A gun was discovered on the premises, but it’s unclear if the firearm used in the shooting was the suspect’s concealed carry weapon.
“Preliminary identification of the male and the female – they have a history – he has a concealed carry license. The firearm on the scene, we have not checked it out yet, but it may not be a gun that’s registered to him.”
Regardless of whether or not the firearm on the scene was the shooter’s concealed carry weapon, the fact that a licensed concealed carrier committed a violent crime is extremely unusual.
Illinois started issuing concealed carry permits in 2013, and since then there have been only a handful of violent crimes from the more than 120,000 carriers.
The standards for obtaining a concealed carry permit are strict, and applicants must have no violent criminal history, no pending warrants, and no objections by local law enforcement. They must also submit to an extensive background check and undergo a 16-hour firearms training course.
This murder-suicide marks the first violent crime of a concealed carrier in 2015.
(The following was submitted by freelance writer Brent Rogers)
The fact of the matter is that the anti-gun folks are going to make sure it makes the news anytime a registered gun-owner commits a crime. It helps their statistics. It\’s just common sense that with a state like Illinois that has a huge population, there are going to be a few bad apples; it\’s just the law of averages, not a major news story.