common sense
As of 12/31/94, Florida had issued 188,106 licenses and not one innocent person had been killed or injured by a licensed gun owner in the 6
years post-reform. Of the 188,106 licenses, 17 (0.0001%) were revoked for misuse of the firearm. Not one of those revocations were associated
with any injury whatsoever. In opposing reform, fear is often expressed that "everyone would be packing guns," but, after reform, most states
have licensed fewer than 2% (and in no state more than 4%) of qualified citizens.
Notwithstanding gun control extremists' unprophetic histrionics , the observed reality was that crime fell, in part, because vicious predators fear an
unpredictable encounter with an armed citizen even more than they fear apprehension by police or fear our timid and porous criminal justice
system. It is no mystery why Florida's tourists are targeted by predators - predators are guaranteed that, unlike Florida's citizens, tourists are
unarmed.
Those who advocate restricting gun rights often justify their proposals "if it saves only one life." There have been matched state pair analyses,
crime trend studies, and California county-by-county research demonstrating that licensing law-abiding, mentally-competent adults to carry
concealed weapons for protection outside their homes saves many lives, so gun prohibitionists should support such reforms, if saving lives is truly
their motivation. |
