After CCW Law, Crime and Death by Firearms See Increase in Minnesota
from The Gun Guys
We’re not quite sure what to make of this one. Whenever the NRA works to pass a concealed carry law, most reasonable onlookers point out that if you have more guns on the streets, no matter whose hands they are in, more people are going to get shot. But the NRA maintains that concealed carry is beneficial– that when “law-abiding gun owners” can carry firearms, they’ll actually work as deterrents to violent crime.
Of course, when we actually see stats after the fact, as we’re seeing now in Minnesota, the truth shows otherwise.
Tens of thousands more Minnesotans licensed to carry handguns in public haven’t turned the state into the Wild West shootout that gun-control advocates warned of. But they also have not done much to curb violent crime, a benefit that many gun-rights proponents predicted when the state’s permitting law was liberalized.
Between 2002, the year before the law was changed, and 2005, the most recent year for which state figures are available, Minnesota’s violent crime rose 13 percent.
(Continued here.)
We’re not quite sure what to make of this one. Whenever the NRA works to pass a concealed carry law, most reasonable onlookers point out that if you have more guns on the streets, no matter whose hands they are in, more people are going to get shot. But the NRA maintains that concealed carry is beneficial– that when “law-abiding gun owners” can carry firearms, they’ll actually work as deterrents to violent crime.
Of course, when we actually see stats after the fact, as we’re seeing now in Minnesota, the truth shows otherwise.
Tens of thousands more Minnesotans licensed to carry handguns in public haven’t turned the state into the Wild West shootout that gun-control advocates warned of. But they also have not done much to curb violent crime, a benefit that many gun-rights proponents predicted when the state’s permitting law was liberalized.
Between 2002, the year before the law was changed, and 2005, the most recent year for which state figures are available, Minnesota’s violent crime rose 13 percent.
(Continued here.)
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3 Comments:
Aren’t there two issues.
#1. Gun violence is up in Minnesota, so it is a “crime” problem not a personal protection issue. Then doesn’t that mean we need more police on the streets (the Clinton plan)?
#2. There may be an increase in gun permit holders, but that does not mean that they are empowering themselves in police actions or putting themselves in situations were violence would normally occur. As the article points out, many people are finding the gun to be inconvenient to carry. So, they are not really using the weapon to reduce crime, but instead are just consuming police resources in the application process. Now that we have a good handle on how much the activity is costing the counties Sheriff’s budgets, it’s time to charge the user a fair “fee”. Isn’t this the classic justification for a user fee that is based on actual cost paid by those that want the service … not all taxpayers.
Incidentally, I have often wondered what does those “Guns Banned” signs do … is like a “Keep off the grass” … essentially, isn’t it just a simple request without any consequences of anyone who violates the sign.
This is another non-sequitir arguement from The Gun Guys. The violent crime in Minnesota is primarly within Minneapolis and St Paul and the perpetrators of these violent crimes are not conceal/carry permit holders.
Most of the perpetrators of violent gun crimes over that span are either new migrants to Minnesota from other states or are involved in the burgeoning meth drug trade in Minneapolis.
Just looking at the overall statistic of the increase in gun violence and making the light-year leap that it is related to conceal/carry reform is wholly disingenuous. If The Gun Guys actually took the time to look at the statistics of the perpetrators - their background, their criminal history and their resident status, they would see the conceal/carry has nothing to do with the increase of violent gun crime. The Gun Guys also do not cite the fact that due to Minneapolis' own lax enforcement of gun trade, Minneapolis is seeing a huge influx of illegal guns from across the country. This is the fault of Mayor RT Rybak and his failed law enforcement policies.
Why not be honest and blame gun violence on the people who commit the crimes?
The statistic I cite regarding out-of-state persons perpetrating violent crime in Mpls and St Paul came from a seminar I went to back in 2004 in which a person from the Conceal/Carry Reform Now made reference to this fact. I do not recall the persons name and it is certainly possible that statistic may no longer be valid.
However, the point I am making is that there is no correlation between the increase in violent crime and gun crime and conceal/carry reform in this state. To make such a conjecture is just simply disingenuous and to score political points for the gun control lobby, in my humble opinion. There is a huge increase in the flow of illegal guns to Minneapolis and there is also a turf war being raged over the meth trade in Minneapolis (similar to the turf war that broke out 20 years ago over the cocaine trade in Mpls). Neither of these facts have anything to do with conceal/carry and everything to do with the rise in violent crime.
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