Guns Didn't Cure Cancer Yet

The Strib saw fit to publish this letter, by Ron Carlson of St. Croix Beach, to the editor the other day:

The first anniversary of Minnesota's "concealed carry" gun law has come
and gone, and the sky has neither fallen nor cleared. I'm still waiting,
though, to hear about just one Minnesota case where a gun, legitimate or
otherwise, has been used to successfully thwart a crime.

We interrupt this pro-victim-disarmament screed for some facts.

For starters, you need to be reading Joel Rosenberg's blog for the straight story about anything pertaining to concealed carry issues. To read a week or two's worth of Joel's blog is to see a world of Citizens for a Supine "Safer" Minnesota's army of strawmen lit on fire, as Lileks says, and kicked around the stage.

Let's return to Mr. Carlson's letter:

I still hope this law will reduce crime, not just add legitimacy to our dangerous gun culture.

Mr. Carlson; "gun culture" in this nation is incredibly safe. It's the drug-dealing gang "culture" that gives us our problem. Not that the Strib would tell us.

By the way, there have been several crimes deterred by permit holders. By memory, I can recall a case where a permittee collared a carjacker in St. Paul last year.

In the meantime, I'll remain unarmed, unfrightened and unconvinced.

What is this conceit of the anti-gunners, that getting permit implies some sort of "Fright?" Is carrying a spare tire, or going into a basement when a tornado approaches, "fright"? It's one of those strawmen that the victim-disarmament crowd relies on in the absence of any logical response.

Read Joel's blog.

Posted by Mitch at May 19, 2004 05:00 AM