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March 02, 2004

Idiots and Spin

Idiots and Spin - First, the idiots.

Former "Republican" governor Arne Carlson is leading an effort along with former Vice President Walter Mondale to try to repeal the Minnesota Personal Protection Act.

For starters, the Strib published a logically-incontinent piece by Carlson, which makes me wonder two things; how desperate is the victim disarmament movement, and who at the Strib decided that this was publishable?

Oh, yeah - and how did we ever elect this hamster?

Carlson starts with the scare quotes:

More than 15,000 people applied for permits to carry concealed handguns in Minnesota in the first seven months after the state made them easier to get. Of 15,873 who applied for the permits in 2003, 139 were denied, according to a Bureau of Criminal Apprehension report released Monday.

Another 20 permits were suspended, revoked or canceled. In three cases, they were taken away because permit carriers were under the influence of alcohol. In two other cases, holders were under restraining orders for stalking or threatening people. In one case, a permit was suspended over the reckless discharge of a gun. Another wrote a bad check.

Before the MPPA passed the Legislature last year, the left was crying that anyone could get a permit. What Carlson shows us is that even writing a bad check - not a violent crime the last time I checked - can get your permit revoked.

Carlson continues:

Of those who had a permit application denied, most -- 84 -- were rejected because applicants were considered a danger to themselves or others. Many of the others that were rejected were because the applicants didn't take required gun safety and training courses or had been convicted of domestic violence.
Think about this (or, if you're a member of Citizens for a Supine "Safer" Minnesota, try to think): the police and sheriffs are denying roughly 1/2 of 1% of permit applications for cause.

1/2 of one percent.

The report shows a sharp increase in the number of people allowed to carry handguns, although it also shows the state is not on track to meet a prediction that 90,000 would get permits in three years.
The "prediction" was a number pulled ad rectum by a couple of Legislative researchers. In none of the 33 states that preceded us have more than one percent of elegible people applied for permits.
Under the old law, 11,381 Minnesotans had been licensed to carry as of the end of 2002.

Until the new law took effect on May 28, police chiefs and sheriffs had broad discretion to deny permits to carry, and some of the metropolitan counties issued few permits.

The change showed in the report. Most of the new permits were issued in metro counties. Hennepin County, for example, issued 2,710 permits while Ramsey County issued 1,188. Anoka, Dakota and St. Louis counties also issued more than 1,000 permits each in the law's first seven months.

Arne Carlson thinks this is a Bad Thing.

No. This reflects the politically-biased "discretion" that the metro police exercised in issuing permits under the old system.

Arne! How many of those new permits have been used to commit crimes?

I'll wait. I'll have to.

My question to the Strib and to Arne Carlson; did Citizens for a Supine "Safer" Minnesota feed you these "facts", or did they come straight from the Strib?

The new statute guarantees a permit to practically any adult who gets the required gun training and safety classes, pays an application fee and passes a criminal and mental health background check.
And this is a problem precisely why?Now the spin; the Strib and KARE11 both report that Carlson and Mondale's presence make this a "bipartisan" effort.

I use the term RINO - "Republican In Name Only" - very sparingly. Arne Carlson earns it richly. He was fiscally profligate, socially craven, and was a strong an advocate of victim disarmament as any DFL hamster.

Note to Arne Carlson - get your sorry, unwanted ass back out on the golf course. You were a worthless governor, and you're a worthless ex-governor.

Fritz? Don't get me started.

Posted by Mitch at March 2, 2004 07:02 AM
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