According to Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms, James Wright and Peter Rossi, Aldine, 1986 about 60% of convicted felons said they purposely avoided targets they knew to be armed. The same study showed that 40% admitted to avoiding someone they thought might be armed. It seems to me the criminals are more afraid of open carry than concealed carry.
According to, The Armed Criminal in America: A Survey of Incarcerated Felons, U.S. Bureau of Justice StatisticsFederal Firearms Offenders study, 1997: National Institute of Justice, Research Report, July 1985,Department of Justice 57% of felons said they are more worried about running in to armed citizens than cops.
In other words the studies show that criminals avoid those that can fight back with a weapon. They avoid the hard targets. They don't hide in bushes and wait to attack them in hopes of stealing their weapon. This "target me" myth is not based in the evidence of real world studies. It just doesn't pan out based on what is known of criminal behavior.
According to a study done in Missouri 2% of civillian shootings kill an innocent person. The tally for police officers came out to 11%. According to, Geller & Karales, "Shootings of and By Chicago Police: Uncommon Crises, Part I: Shootings by Chicago Police," Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 1813 (1981) 14% of lethal force incidents by Chicago police officers were "prima facie cases of manslaughter or murder."
Even the FBI admits that criminals don't OC & practically never use holsters.
The study was called "Violent Encounters: A Study of Felonious Assaults on Our Nation's Law Enforcement Officers".
Published in 2006; PDFs available here.
Chapter 4 is where they talk about criminals, OC, & holsters.
So if you see a citizen with a pistol in a holster, you can be pretty sure they're not planning to cause trouble.
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