|
Editorial
The Truth about Concealed Carry
David A. Lombardo
Note to Garry McCarthy, Chicago's Superintendent of Police:
Dear Superintendent McCarthy,
For almost a year I've been driving the streets of Chicago looking for the ones where the blood is running as a result of Illinois' concealed carry. Could you give me those locations, please? You remember how you warned us blood would run in the streets, right? We remember.
And what about that interview on radio station WVON in January 2013? You said at that time, "You put more guns on the street, expect more shootings. I don't care if they're licensed legal firearms, people who are not highly trained... putting guns in their hands is a recipe for disaster. So I'll train our officers that there is a concealed carry law, but when somebody turns with a firearm in their hand, the officer does not have an obligation to wait to get shot to return fire, and we're going to have tragedies as a result of that. I'm telling you right up front."
Superintendent, can you cite a single occurrence of that happening? Because not only do you have a low opinion of those who would carry a firearm for self-defense, you also have a low opinion of your own cops if you don't think they're capable of dealing with concealed carry. Forty-nine other states haven't had a problem, but you think your own force is incapable of dealing with it? I'd love to listen in on conversations in cop locker rooms around the city if you're that down on your own personnel.
You might want to take a look at statistics released annually by the Justice Department because nowhere in the United States have those issues occurred with any statistical relevance. We're talking well over 11 million concealed carry permit holders across the country-roughly 4.8% of the U.S. population.
Take Florida, for example. Florida is the 500 pound gorilla in the world of concealed carry permits. Since 1988 the State of Florida has issued 2.5 million concealed carry permits, and to date crime rates involving gun owners with carry licenses have consistently been about two hundredths of one percent (0.02%). The fact is Floridians are twice as likely to be attacked by an alligator as by a person with a concealed carry permit.
And a word about the notion that concealed carry has no crime deterrent value: after Florida passed their concealed carry law, Florida's homicide rate fell from 36% above the national average to 4% below.
In Texas murder rates fell 50% faster than the national average in the year after their concealed carry law passed. Rape rates fell 93% faster in the first year after enactment and 500% faster in the second. Assaults fell 250% faster in the second year.
Department of Justice statistics tell us concealed permit holders are 5.7 times less likely to be arrested for violent offenses than the general public and 13.5 times less likely to be arrested for non-violent offenses than the general public.
Across the United States, since 2007 murder rates have fallen from 5.6 to 4.4 per 100,000 - a 22 percent drop at the same time the percentage of the adult population with permits soared by 130 percent. Overall violent crime also fell by 22 percent during that period of time.
And though mainstream media is loath to cover stories in which a concealed permit holder is a hero, some of the incidents do see the light of day.
A citizen with a gun stopped a knife-wielding man as he began stabbing people in a Salt Lake City store. Two men retrieved firearms from their cars and stopped a mass murder at the Appalachian School of Law. An armed citizen stopped a shooter while police were pinned down in Early, Texas, and another armed citizen stopped an apartment shoot-out in Oklahoma City.
Superintendent McCarthy, I tell the truth whether it supports my point of view or detracts from it. Only by starting with the truth can you work on a solution to a problem. Lying merely deflects from problem-solving. I've defended you from the detractors that blame you for not solving the gang murder dilemma in Chicago. We both know that's not something cops can do. It's a societal problem, and it has to be handled by the family and within the community in general.
Why don't you show the law abiding citizens of Chicago the same courtesy and be honest. You know full well the truth is that concealed carry is simply not a problem anywhere in the United States and that includes the City of Chicago. Superintendent McCarthy, you're Chicago's top cop; act like it.
| 
