Don't Look at Real Evidence

In the last twenty years the inexorable movement across the nation is toward "shall issue" concealed carry legislation. That means that discretion of the issuing official is removed from the equation and the government must issue the permit to anyone who meets the qualifications established by the legislature for the permit. The squeals of the left were loud and long. It was going to be Dodge City, High Noon, St. Valentine's Day on Clark Street all rolled into one bloody package.

The last time I heard there were now 41 states with some form of concealed carry permit. Dr. John Lott, of Chicago, has written extensively and very thoroughly documented the outcome. Wherever the rights of the people have been preserved, crime has gone down and communities are safer. Wholesale violence has never occurred and permit holders remain among the lowest demographic in crime stats. Yet, we get the totally predictable, if equally unbelievable bleating here:

We Must Take Their Guns Away!

It doesn't leave much doubt about their agenda, does it. They seem in deep denial about the difference in safety between walking the streets of the Bronx or Brooklyn at midnight and walking the streets of Sherman TX or Colorado Springs. In one place you've got a life-expectancy of minutes, in the other a benign environment of security--but then you've got an armed citizenry in place.

Of course you noted the deadly statistics of the NYT editorial. Good journalist are responsible for good numbers. Did you follow the link for those death figures? Here, I'll help you:

Murder, Suicide, Accident, and Police Interventions

Somehow the Brady Campaign does not seem to me to be an unbiased source of statistics. But, that shouldn't bother the true believers. The sky is falling, the sky is falling. The proles will be armed...