The gunman accused of killing five people in cold blood Wednesday had a concealed weapon permit

[DanTex]

87. As has been pointed out before, that is not the correct comparison.

The talking point that CCWers commit less crimes than the "average citizen" is grossly misleading, because CCWers are not drawn from the population at random. The correct comparison to draw would be between CCWers and a demographically comparable group of non-CCWers. In addition to passing a background check, CCWers tend to be older, whiter, wealthier, and more rural than the average citizen, all qualities which make them statistically less likely to commit crimes (and also less likely to be victims of crimes) than average citizens.

As far as I know, there has not been a properly controlled study comparing crime incidence rates between CCWers and non-CCWers. This is partly due to the fact that there isn't good comprehensive data concerning crimes committed by CCWers, so we really don't know whether CCWers commit crimes more or less often than non-CCWers.