You Can Fool All of the People Some of the Time

This is the year Minnesota will most likely get a shall-issue concealed-carry law. We came so close in 2001, couldn't fight off a poison-pill amendment in '02 amid the budget fiasco...

...but this year we have a majority in the House, and a closer split in the Senate, where we came two votes from passage in '01.

The "Brady Campaign" - formerly and more honestly known as "Handgun Control Inc" - has posted this "study" to try to bolster the morale of the pro-victim-disarmament troops.

Read it - and note that no specifics are ever mentioned. They've posted the "Executive Summary" - but no raw data can be found anywhere on the site!

So when they say:

Between 1992 through 1998 (the last six years for which data exists), the violent crime rate in the strict and no-issue states fell 30% while the violent crime rate for states that liberalized carry laws prior to 1992 dropped half as much — by 15%. Nationally, the violent crime rate fell 25%...

...they don't mention that the states with the "big" drops were states with higher crime rates to begin with - and the "shall-issue" states were those with lower crime (thanks in part to "shall-issue" laws) before the "study" began!

If you're a CCW supporter, you have to keep your eyes out for this kind of thing.

Posted by Mitch at November 19, 2002 02:17 PM