Fifteen years ago, as the Minnesota Personal Protection Act (aka “Concealed Carry”, which is a misnomer – it’s really “Shall Issue”) started picking up steam in Minnesota, it also started picking up detractors.  Many of the names involved were exactly the same bunch that’s bagging on “Stand Your Ground” today.  They predicted, as is their dismal wont, blood in the streets and shootings over fender-benders and bla bla bla.

Sound familiar?

Judging by the record of the 94,000-odd carry permittees in Minnesota over nearly a decade, they were as wrong then as they are now.

Anyway – in 1997, I challenged any liberal detractor of “Shall Issue” to a debate in any forum on the facts and merits of the issue.  At that point, I wasn’t even a small-potatoes D-list basement pundit; I was a guy writing on a politics list-server.   Nobody took me up on the challenge.

Things have changed a bit; I am that small-potatoes D-list basement pundit.  And I’m still right on the issue.

And I reiterate my challenge.  I will take on any liberal detractor of “Stand Your Ground”, in a debate on the actual facts and substance of the issue.  (That’s a bit of a trick, there – the left’s case really has few facts and less substance).  We can have the debate in any mutually-agreeable forum – my show, your show, at Old Mexico or the Ramsey County Library, or on the steps of the Capitol at dawn for all I care.

The only qualifications?

• I don’t get a check from Soros or the Flying Koch Brothers, so it can’t interfere with the day job.
• I’d prefer it to be versus an intelligent lefty who can carry on a factual argument for more than one round of factual exchange (if that) without breaking into name-calling, which rules out “Two Putt Tommy” and 2/3 of the rest of the Twin Cities leftyblog community.
• We’ll agree to a format beforehand. I’m not going to waste either of our time on a shouting match or mindless harangue if I can avoid it.  I do better than that.  Can you?

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Monday, April 2nd, 2012 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Victim Disarmament. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.