If you are anti-guns, or afraid of guns, or just don't like them and don't want them in your house, then this blog is for you.
(It might just change your mind)

Monday, August 22, 2011

Gun Makers Set Sights On Female Buyers

by Scott Graf


Pink and purple handguns are for sale
at Hyatt Gun Shop in Charlotte, N.C.
Gun store owners reported a 73 percent increase
in female customers in 2009 from the year before
— a trend reflected by the growing number of guns
made just for women.


For years, gun stores were predominantly patronized by men. But these days, shooting ranges and shops selling firearms are seeing more female customers than ever before, and that has them changing the way they do business.

"I just refuse to be a victim if I possibly can in life," Skoff says. "I actually went and got my concealed permit a couple months ago so I can carry."

Skoff, a 47-year-old flight attendant, says she shoots because she's scared.

"If you listen to the news at night, all you hear are women in parking lots — someone coming up, or threatening them for their purse or threatening their life, or raping [them]," she says.

Huge Emerging Market

Store owner Mike Threadgill says there was a time when women like Skoff would have been out of place. Not anymore.

Rachel Parsons, a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association, says women are a huge emerging market. What's happening at Eagle Gun is happening at shops all over, she says.

The latest data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation shows gun store owners reported a 73 percent increase in female customers in 2009 from the year before. Parsons says the trend is even being reflected by the number of guns made just for women.

"You see firearms being developed that have smaller grips to fit a woman's hand," Parson says. "Maybe they're pink, or maybe they have pearl grips. And they're a little bit less intimidating."

The NRA says it's also organizing more hunting excursions for women than ever before. And the spike in sales is not just a North Carolina phenomenon. In Texas last year, almost 30,000 women obtained a concealed carry permit. Georgia has also seen an increase.

Changing Business Priorities

Instructor Dan Starks teaches gun safety courses in North Carolina. In a class of about 20 students, one-third are women. One of them is 54-year-old retired nurse Nancy Clontz. She's already been to a shooting range — with her book club — and soon she'll buy her first gun.

"Right now, I'm looking at a Kel-Tec P-3AT semi-automatic," she says. "And also a Lady Wesson revolver, a .380."

Clontz sometimes travels alone and wants to be able to defend herself. The National Shooting Sports Foundation says self-defense is the main reason women are getting into guns.

Threadgill says he added to his selection of female guns and accessories as part of his recent expansion. But how serious Threadgill is about female customers may be best illustrated by something his new store has that his old one didn't: a women's bathroom.

"Just the way that it's built, and the way it's laid out with the mirrors on the door, mirrors at the wall — I mean, they want to make sure their nose is powdered good when they come out and all that good stuff," Threadgill says. "So we want to cater to that. You won't find that in the men's restrooms."

To help finance his $2 million expansion, Threadgill sold range memberships. Of the nearly 700 purchased so far, women have bought about one-third. Threadgill says that means the changes he and other shop owners are making these days are right on target.

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/18/139757899/gun-makers-set-sights-on-female-buyers?ft=1&f=1001

In defense of women and guns

By Joshunda Sanders



"Chivalry is dead,"
"Male criminals think nothing nowadays of shooting a woman."



It wasn't until the recent debates over concealed handgun licenses on campuses and my own curiosity about learning how to shoot that I decided it was time to apply for my own license.

It surprised me to discover that I was part of a larger trend in Texas. Applications for concealed carry permits began rising in the state before the 2008 elections, an increase some attributed to concerns that anti-gun politicians would be voted in . Of the total number of licenses granted, women made up 21.9 percent in 2010, up from 17.7 percent in 2001, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. For reasons that are unclear, black women are the fastest-growing group of women being issued licenses for concealed handguns in the state.

Academics, experts and gun safety instructors have disagreed for decades about how popular guns are with women. Part of the ongoing dispute reflects what The Atlantic wisely noted in its September issue as an ongoing and unresolved battle in American culture between gun control and gun rights activists. Nationwide, the National Shooting Sports Foundation reported that in 2009, the number of women buying guns for personal defense was up 83 percent.

University of Richmond professor Laura Browder, author of "Her Best Shot: Women and Guns in America" says that the visibility of female hunters such as Sarah Palin in popular culture has lifted some of the stigma of gun ownership for most women ­- whether they use those guns for personal defense or for hunting. "Palin has brought women's gun ownership back into the public sphere in a way that it hasn't been," Browder said.

Friday, August 19, 2011

More Flash Mobs in the news



Criminal youth mobs are gathering and dispersing quickly thanks to online social media sites. They come together to loot stores, assault citizens, commit arson, and other violent criminal activities. And the trend is spreading.

http://lifeasweknowitorsomethingsimilar.blogspot.com/2011/08/more-flash-mobs-in-news.html

Obama Administration Resorts to Mob Tactics [on Gun Control]

Obama Administration Resorts to Mob Tactics [on Gun Control]
Wayne LaPierre


You’ve seen this in the movies. A group of gangsters surrounds an innocent bystander. One of the thugs pulls out a bat and smashes the poor guy’s windshield. “It’d be a shame if this sorta thing continued to happen,” says the thug. Unable to afford any future damage to his property, the bystander-turned-victim is now forced to surrender his money to the mob so they can “protect” his belongings.

President Barack Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder are now using this same mob-style tactic on American gun owners.

Officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), an agency under the direct purview of Holder’s Justice Department, forced American gun shops to illegally sell guns to people they knew would cross the border and put those guns in the hands of violent Mexican drug lords.

The operation was dubbed “Fast and Furious” and many of the over 2,000 illegal guns that were supplied to Mexican criminals under this program were then used to commit murder – over 150 murders in Mexico, and two “Fast and Furious” guns were found at the murder site of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Meanwhile, as drug crime and murder raged out of control in Mexico, President Barack Obama blamed it all on law-abiding American gun owners and our Second Amendment rights.

“This [drug] war is being waged with guns purchased not here, but in the United States. More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border,” said Obama during one of his visits to Mexico.

This line was repeated over and over again by Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The media ran with it. Soon, the perception everywhere was that our Second Amendment rights were responsible for drug crime and murder in Mexico.

And it was a bald-faced lie.

Leaked State Department cables proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that Central America was the main supplier of illegal guns to Mexican drug lords – not the United States of America.

And those guns that did find their way from America to Mexico were being illegally pushed across the border by our own federal government, as we now know. This scheme was so devious, that even Mexican President Felipe Calderon knew nothing about it.

There’s your busted windshield, Mr. Law-Abiding American Gun Owner. Now the Obama administration expects you to surrender your gun rights so something like this never happens again.

BATFE is now requiring American firearms dealers that are located in states that border Mexico to register the sales of anyone purchasing multiple rifles. You know…to solve the gun-running problem that BATFE itself illegally created.

BATFE’s new gun registration requirement is not only useless in stopping Mexican drug violence, but it’s also an illegal and blatant end-run around Congress. Not that you would expect an administration that breaks the law to all of sudden begin respecting our American law-making process.

All freedom-loving Americans – not just gun owners – should be alarmed by this dictatorial move by the White House. If Obama and Holder can circumvent Congress and make their own gun control laws, it won’t be long before they’re ramming a whole host of other unpopular laws down our throats.

This is why the National Rifle Association is suing the Obama administration in federal court so we can defend the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans in border states by stopping this unconstitutional gun registration scheme. And we will continue to pressure Holder and the Justice Department to come forward with all of the facts surrounding the secretive and illegal “Fast and Furious” scandal.

This is real-life America, not a fictional episode of The Sopranos. And we Americans need to stand up for ourselves and defend our Constitutional rights whenever and wherever they fall under attack. NRA will fight this illegal gun-control edict no matter how many windshields the Obama administration smashes.

http://townhall.com/columnists/waynelapierre/2011/08/16/obama_administration_resorts_to_mob_tactics

The illogical and downright corrupt conclusions of the Anti-Gun agenda.

How the Academic Left Engages in Debate
by John R. Lott Jr.

James Q. Wilson is now 80 years old, and for decades he has been the most prominent criminologist in the country. Wilson was on National Academy of Sciences panel that wrote the 2004 report “Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review.” The panel was set up by the Clinton administration and contained many outspoken gun-control proponents.

The purpose of the panel was to examine the research on whether various gun-control laws reduce or increase crime. In particular, the debate over right-to-carry laws — which give citizens the ability to carry concealed weapons — was raging in academia at the time; a body of research indicated that these laws reduce crime by giving the innocent a way to deter potential criminals.

Dissents for National Academy of Sciences reports are exceedingly rare. Being on a panel is a cushy, prestigious position, and there is a lot of pressure to sign on to the panel’s conclusion. Those who don’t sign on aren’t invited to be on future panels. Over the ten years prior to the “Firearms and Violence” report, there were 236 reports, and only two featured dissents.

For Wilson, the firearms panel was different. Wilson’s dissent was not only rare, it was forceful: “In view of the confirmation of the findings that shall-issue laws drive down the murder rate, it is hard for me to understand why these claims are called ‘fragile.’”

Wilson said that that panel’s conclusion raises concerns given that “virtually every reanalysis done by the committee” confirmed that right-to-carry laws reduced crime. He found the committee’s only evidence that did not confirm the drop in crime “quite puzzling.” The result that they pointed to was co-produced by John Donohue, a law professor at Stanford, and accounted for “no control variables” — nothing on any of the social, demographic, and public-policy factors that might affect crime. Furthermore, Wilson found it incomprehensible how evidence that was not published in a peer-reviewed journal would be given such weight: “It strikes me that such an argument ought first to be tested in a peer-reviewed journal before it is used in this report as a sound strategy.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/274689/how-academic-left-engages-debate-john-r-lott-jr#

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Britain’s criminal utopia

By Chris Cox

If you want to see what a disarmed society looks like, look no further than England.

Thousands of angry, drunk, violent thugs running wild and stealing anything they can carry. Shopkeepers and homeowners crippled with fear, unable to defend their loved ones or their property. Innocent citizens forced to watch helplessly while their life’s dreams — everything they worked so hard to build and acquire — are carried out the door, or smashed to pieces, or burned to the ground.

Men, women and children forced to strip naked in the streets, while packs of criminals laugh and ridicule them before making off with their clothing.

The fact is, when British politicians stripped their citizens of their God-given right to self-defense, they robbed them of their freedom and their dignity.

Sales of baseball bats are up over 5,000% on Amazon.co.uk. This isn’t to mark the beginning of little league season. These are desperate homeowners and shopkeepers purchasing the best — and in reality, only — self-defense tool that the British government will allow them to own…at least for now.

A little situational awareness goes a long way.

by Zee

Some will argue that if this man were armed, h'e have thwarted these criminals. While that may be the case, and I am certainly for CCW, I think that is not the whole story here. Watching this video made me think that this guy might have fared much better, weapon or no, if he'd just been watching his back.

These punks took advantage of the element of suprise on a hapless commuter. They want to hit a target & get lost fast. They like easy prey. I'm guessing that if he'd have given them pause, just by keeping an eye on them and not turning his back, he'd have made out much better. THey would probably move on to the next target.

A little situational awareness goes a long way.


NYPD Seeks Pack Of Thugs Who Beat, Rob Fordham Heights Man Of His Bible



NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The NYPD is hunting for a vicious trio who have been robbing folks along Creston Avenue in the Fordham Heights section of the Bronx.

The brutes are described as African Americans, aged 16-20. They may have a fourth accomplice.

Police say the thugs have struck three times in the same spot: 181st & Creston Avenue, just off the Grand Concourse. They’ve allegedly robbed people on July 23, August 3 and August 8. In all three cases, the muggings were in the early morning – between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m.

The August 8 attack was caught on tape and is shocking for its senseless brutality.

The victim, a 64-year-old man, is seen walking into the lobby of 2100 Creston Avenue. He seems to graciously hold open the lobby door for the suspect approaching him from behind.

Once inside the vestibule, though, the first thug pounces on the man, putting him into a chokehold and hurtling him to the ground. That’s when the other muggers come through the door, one stumbling in eagerness to participate in the attack.

The goons then tug, punch and pull at the victim in an effort to get his belongings. One has a blue shirt turned up over their head, another’s pants are sagging low enough to nearly fall off, the first thug is wearing a yellow shirt.

The victim, who asked not to be identified, told 1010 WINS’ Terry Sheridan the thugs ripped his pants trying to get his wallet and cell phone out of his pocket.

The brutal trio also took his Bible

The victim said he found his credit cards thrown on the street a day after the alleged attack.

Anyone with any information as to who these suspects are is asked to contact Crime Stoppers. To do so, you can:

* Log on to the Crime Stoppers website.
* Call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). All calls are kept confidential.
* Text a tip to CRIMES (274367) and entering TIP577.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/08/17/nypd-seeks-pack-of-thugs-who-beat-rob-fordham-heights-man-of-his-bible/

I hope they read it.

Gun Rights Win in Florida: State Law Will Soon End Local Firearms Restrictions

by Buck Sexton


Florida has decided to finally protect the 2nd Amendment at the state level and eliminate onerous restrictions that many municipalities and communities have enacted against gun rights.

Starting October 1st, any public official who passes or enforces gun regulations below the state level faces a $5,000 personal fine and could even be removed from office by the governor for enacting or enforcing local gun laws.

While Florida has had a law on its books since 1987 that makes it illegal to pass gun regulations beyond state statutes, there was no enforcement mechanism in place. As a result, towns and cities have created ordinances at will. In the process, many of them have criminalized otherwise completely law-abiding citizens who unintentionally ran afoul of arbitrary, localized gun rules.

But thanks to the law recently signed by Governor Rick Scott, that’s all about to change in the Sunshine State.

Called the Penalties for Violating Firearms Preemption Law, the new state forces the repeal of any and all regulations, policies, and ordinances that violate the firearms preemption law of 1987. Its passage has already had an impact as assorted town and county bureaucrats are scrambling to come into compliance by the October 1 deadline. The Orlando Sentinel reported on the changes now underway that:

“Orange County employees have started removing ‘no firearms’ signs at county parks, and soon they’ll probably black out the same words on brochures. In Groveland, leaders recently erased from the books an ordinance that banned firing a gun into the air….in Boca Raton, the “no guns allowed” sign has come down at City Hall. In Lake County, commissioners recently deleted a provision in an ordinance that would have banned firearms on public lands, including its parks.”


Related story:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-florida-local-gun-laws-20110814,0,5831647.story

Message from the NRA



Stop the U.N Gun Ban Treaty!

Imagine roving gangs terrorizing your neighborhood, rioting, setting fire to homes and businesses, and beating and robbing your neighbors.

The government is helpless to protect you. Your family looks to you to do something but you can't protect them with a gun because guns are banned. All you have is a baseball bat.

You've seen the heartbreaking images on TV, on the internet and in the newspapers. This is exactly what is happening in Great Britain right now.

But do you know what really angers me? This is what the U.N. envisions for America. U.N. diplomats and anti-gunners here in the U.S. are pushing the lie that, "Government will protect you ? Protecting people is the job of the police." I say, "Tell that to the innocent victims in London."

I also say, "Tell that to the victims of Hurricane Katrina." In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, local police in New Orleans illegally confiscated the guns of law-abiding residents, putting them at the mercy of the rampaging mobs.

It took NRA a year to defeat New Orleans' so-called "Emergency Powers Act."

Monday, August 15, 2011

Pro-Gun Group’s Call to Sell Seized Weapons Advances to States

By Alison Fitzgerald


In the coming months, state legislators are likely to find a bill crossing their desks that requires law enforcement agencies to auction guns confiscated in crimes rather than destroy them, as many do now.

The proposal is the brainchild of the National Rifle Association, and it was adopted last week by a task force at the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Republican-leaning policy group that brings together state lawmakers, advocacy groups and corporations to write model legislation.

The gun bill, which was passed 12 years ago in Kentucky has recently been championed by the NRA in nearby states.

“This is a really great way for police to get money and for people to get firearms,” said Rachel Parsons, a spokeswoman for the NRA. She said the law takes weapons out of the hands of criminals and gives them to law-abiding citizens.

“I had police coming to me and saying, ‘I’m destroying better guns than what my officers have in their holsters,’” - Kentucky state Representative Robert Damron, a Democrat and ALEC member,


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-11/pro-gun-group-s-call-to-sell-seized-weapons-advances-to-states.html

UK Mayhem Leaves Disarmed Citizens at the Mercy of Criminals

UK Mayhem Leaves Disarmed Citizens at the Mercy of Criminals
from NRA




By now you have seen the headlines and images of destruction: the rioting, looting, violent assaults, and arson. London and other UK cities look like war zones and their citizens are afraid to venture out, because the danger is very real. It's a view of the temporary breakdown of society. It is gut check time; a time when the concept of being able to defend oneself gives way to the stark reality that few viable options to do so exist.

Gun laws in the UK are among the most restrictive in the world. In March of 1996, a deranged man walked into a school in Dunblane, Scotland and killed 16 children and one teacher. In the aftermath of this tragedy, British politicians sought to reduce violent crime by enacting a ban on all handguns. Handgun owners were given a February 1998 deadline to turn in their firearms--and they did. The UK was supposed to become a much safer place--but dramatic increases in crime following the gun ban proved it didn't.

A July 3, 2009, Daily Mail article reported that "Britain's violent crime record is worse than any other country in the European Union, it has been revealed. Official crime figures show the U.K. also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa."

And the current bedlam has proved it further. Restrictive laws concerning long-guns, combined with the outright ban on handguns, leave the country's citizens largely defenseless (it was reported this week that sales of one type of aluminum baseball bats on Amazon UK rose 6,541 percent). In many places, it was reported that police were unable to stop the mayhem. As a result, panicked, defenseless law-abiding citizens were forced to flee their homes, while others watched as their businesses were destroyed. Compare this to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, when armed citizens were able to protect their lives, families, and property from looters and violent mobs.

Friday, August 12, 2011

With current events in the US I’m even swallowing my fear of firearms

Handgun recommendation for Women
by FerFAL

After my son and I read “Surviving the economic collapse”, I started looking around and paying more attention to everything that is around me, my family and especially my children. We’ve made some small steps so far in preparedness around the house and have extended our trucks emergency kit to hold a few items I never would have thought of necessary 5 to 10 years ago.

With current events in the US I’m even swallowing my fear of firearms and figure it is better to know how to handle anything that is in my home rather than have an irrational fear of the subject as a whole. So, I have a question for you that I have not found a reasonable, sane or logical answer to in my search for a plausible answer.

As a newcomer to the gun world, what would you recommend as a decent gun for a female? I’m not looking for anything showy and have become weary of gun stores automatically going for the silly pink guns when I say I’m looking for something for myself.

I am looking for 3 things. Easily carried, easily stored and common ammo. I settled on a .22 revolver but I’m still not sure if that would be wise for basic home protection and practice as a first gun for a newcomer. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :)

Your book brought hope and direction to an otherwise bleak and dark future. Thank you for sharing your experiences in a no nonsense and clear manner.

Gratefully,
LMA

Hi LMA, thanks for your email and I’m glad you found my book useful.
Sounds like you’re more aware now and getting prepared, congratulations!

The kind of people you may come across in gunstores is diverse. Some will advise you well, some will suggest a gun like you said, based on color as if you were buying a purse or accessory, and some will make awful recommendations thinking women can’t handle a “real” caliber. Sometimes they recommend the type of gun they have the hardest time selling. You will rarely get good advice in gunstores, so don’t let them influence you in spite of your own judgment or research.

The type of gun I would recommend depends exclusively of how much time you will put into learning how to shoot it and how much practice you think you’ll be getting.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Video: When open-carry is your only option

Reason TV takes a close look at the issue of handgun rights and carry permits in California, one of the few “may-issue” states left in the nation. County sheriffs may issue or deny permits at their discretion, and as the video states, they don’t usually approve applications from most law-abiding citizens. That forces people like Sam Wolanyk to carry unloaded weapons openly, which has the state legislature in a lather — and people debating the nature of the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms, or in this case, bare arms:



Police are warning armed residents to use holsters, not waistbands.

Police urge holster use after man shoots his own penis
by Laurie Merrill




As Chandler residents Joshua Seto, 27, and his fiancée, Cara Christopher, walked over to a Fry's Food Store for refreshments, he tried securing her pink handgun in the front waistband of his pants.

The gun fired, striking Seto's penis and continuing through his left thigh. The bleeding started immediately and was heavy, according to police dispatch recordings released Sunday.

"He is still conscious, there is just a lot of blood," Christopher , 26, told 9-1-1 operators and dispatchers.

In the wake the accident, police are warning armed residents to use holsters, not waistbands.

"Whenever you handle a firearm, whether you are a novice or experienced, always treat firearms as though they are loaded, said Tyler, a spokesman for the department. "If you are going to carry a handgun on your person, use a holster, not your waistband."


http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/2011/08/07/20110807cr-penisshot0811.html#ixzz1UdQ1w44b

Group Of Teens Randomly Attack Man On Kelly Drive

Group Of Teens Randomly Attack Man On Kelly Drive

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – On the same weekend that two men were beaten by violent mobs of teenagers in Center City spurring a police crackdown, another man now says he was randomly attacked on Kelly Drive.

Christopher Dean says he was biking along the drive around 6 p.m. on Sunday evening, July 31. It was a sunny day and plenty of people were out. He was between Boathouse Row and the Girard Avenue bridge heading west, he says, when he saw a group of four or five teenage boys standing by the side of the path. Suddenly, one of them stepped out toward his bicycle and punched him in the face.

Dean was hit so hard, he says he blacked out. Dean says the teens appeared to be between 15 and 18.

Pictures show his face bleeding profusely. He needed stitches and his skull was fractured in three places, he says.

“The doctors … said that’s brass knuckles, the only way your skin can be opened up that way, that’s brass knuckles,” he said.

Police confirmed Dean’s story and said there have been no arrests.

Dean’s incident happened just two days after two other violent attacks by teenagers in Center City. On Friday night, July 29, one man was beaten at Walnut and Juniper, and another man was attacked at 15th and Sansom.

Dean says he is speaking out now because he doesn’t believe the city is doing enough to combat the random violence.

On Monday, Mayor Nutter laid out a plan to prevent the so-called flash mobs, mostly by imposing a tougher curfew in Center City and University City on Friday and Saturday nights. The city is also keeping 20 recreation centers open later on those evenings to give kids something to do.

But none of that would have prevented Dean’s incident, which occurred early in the evening and outside the new curfew zone.

Dean says he believes the city needs to install more cameras, especially along Kelly Drive. Unless the violence is put in check, Dean says the biggest victim might be the city’s reputation.

“If they [tourists and visitors] get wind that this is a dangerous place, this city – generations of work to make this city what it is – and it is a gem of a city, is ruined,” he said.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/08/09/third-flash-mob-attack-reported/

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

New Florida law answers the question When is a gun concealed? Deals with accidental weapon exposure


A new law goes into effect on October 1st in Florida. It expands the rights of those who conceal carry. The new law modifies an existing one that prohibits open carry of firearms. The language of the law has been modified to allow for accidental exposure in a non threatening manner.
"If the wind blew open a man's jacket and exposed a gun and someone reported it, the man would not be doing anything illegal." - Sgt. Chuck Mulligan, St. Johns County Sheriff's Office


See Also:
http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2011-08-06/when-gun-concealed#.TkB53WE095c

Law-abiding gun owners no source of fear


It was going to be a bloodbath. Disputes at soccer games were going to turn into shootouts. Michigan was going to turn into the Wild West — or worse.

Those were some of the more draconian claims made 10 years ago when state lawmakers in a lame-duck session slipped through a law that made it easier for Michigan residents to legally carry a concealed weapon.

The law did make getting a license easier. Before the law was passed, about 52,000 Michigan residents were authorized to carry concealed weapons. Since the law's passage, that number has mushroomed to more than 275,000.

Yet, as recounted in a recent Detroit Free Press story, there has been no appreciable impact on crime in this state. There certainly has not been an upsurge in gun violence traced to the increase of concealed-weapons permits.

In retrospect, that shouldn't have been a surprise. Many states already had more liberal concealed weapons laws than did Michigan — and they weren't experiencing the type of gun violence that worried the law's opponents, including many of the state's county prosecutors and police officials.

"We were all a little too caught up imaging what might happen," Ionia County Prosecutor Ronald Schafer told the Free Press.

Proponents of the more liberal law argued that the old method of granting concealed-weapons permits was tilted in favor of those who had connections with the county gun boards. Indeed, permits did seem to be limited to retired police officers and those who could demonstrate a need, such as businesspeople who carried cash.

Not only did the system encourage favoritism, but proponents of change said it also ran afoul of a state constitution that, they said, clearly indicates that carrying a weapon is a right, not a privilege to be granted.

That's pretty much how the law now works. To get concealed-weapons permit, an applicant basically must be 21 or older, be a citizen of Michigan for six months, successfully complete a handgun safety course, not have a recorded history of mental illness, not have a felony conviction in the last eight years and not have a dishonorable charge from the military.

Once someone has a permit, there are some limits. Even with a license, a person can't carry a concealed weapon in schools, day-care centers, sports arenas or stadiums, taverns, places of worship, hospitals, college living quarters or casinos.

To Carry or Not to Carry

By Laura Spadantua



Whenever there is a shooting on a campus—especially a mass shooting as occurred at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in 2007—there are suggestions that if only students or faculty had been armed, they could have defended themselves and others by shooting the shooter. That view has led to a call for the right to bear arms on campus. Others see the mixture of concealed carry of firearms and campus life as a recipe for disaster.

The issue has gained a lot of traction. While Utah is the only state to have passed a law requiring public campuses to permit concealed carry, at least 15 states have introduced similar legislation in their current session, according to Brenda Bautsch of the National Conference on State Legislatures. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer recently vetoed a similar law.

The details of the legislation vary from state to state. Some states allow the schools to develop their own policies regarding whether concealed carry is acceptable on campus. It appears that most of the campuses that do allow concealed carry limit it to individuals over 21; the age restriction comports with laws that restrict concealed carry to those 21 or older in those states.