Minnesota now has 75,000 carry permits, according to the Minnesota Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance. That’s running just a tad ahead of the national average.
Just over seven years after its passage, the Minnesota Citizens’ Personal Protection Act of 2003 has resulted in over 75,000 people who now have active carry permits, a 500% increase over the number in effect before the law was reformed.
According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, there were 75,583 active permits as of May 31, 2010.
Still no problems.
“Increasingly, personal protection is becoming more widely and socially accepted,” said David Gross, a criminal defense attorney, member of the GOCRA board, and long-time advocate for the right of self defense. He points at the recent controversy manufactured by gun control advocates over law-abiding citizens carrying holstered guns into Starbucks coffee shops. Starbucks refused to give in to demands that it ban gun-carrying customers.
“That is literally visible here in Minnesota, too,” he said, “The number of ‘bans guns’ signs continues to dwindle as businesses return the respect shown by gun owners.”
Back in 1987, when Florida became the ninth “Shall Issue” state (there are 40 today) , Florida state senator Ron Silver coined the phrase “Gunshine State”, expecting the state to turn into “Dodge City East”. He famously admitted he’d been utterly wrong within the next five or six years.
It’s happened here, too:
Even vocal opponents of the law, like former Olmsted County Sheriff Steve Borchardt, revised their opinions as law-abiding Minnesotans remained law abiding after earning permits.”The fact is the sky didn’t fall,” he told KARE11 in 2005. “The fact is it worked pretty seamlessly.”
Which hasn’t stopped the left from continuing to lie about shall issue – but you get the impression the smart ones don’t have their hearts in it.
Mitch, is it possible to track down the people who said they will no longer go to Twins/Vikings games or the state fair because they said shootouts will occur there if we get our full 2nd amendment rights? I laughed at them then, and wish to laugh at them now.
Mitch, will you care to comment, as you indicated back in the “discussion” on Mahablog, about the correlation not only in crime stats, but also in the stats which correlate national gun ownership with gun deaths per capita?
That seemed to have been ignored now, twice.
Me, I’m kind of curious as to why you’re focusing on gun deaths, rather than homicide rates.
DG, how about Chicago’s gun ownership rate and homicide rate?
Chuck, my favorite one of those folks is (and it’s not my fault, honest) my state rep, Jean Wagenius, who proudly declared during the 2003 debate that she’d never patronize any merchant who didn’t put up the silly no guns signs (that’s not, to be fair, quite how she put it).
I did ask her how she handled the problemf buying gas — there weren’t any posted gas stations, and she explained that her (apparently expendable) husband was going to handle that for her. I figured she could deal with the lack of posted dentists by mailing in her teeth, and silently allowed as how I didn’t want to know how she was going to deal with her gynecologist…
I’m not sure that that resolution even lasted two weeks; it was two weeks after the law passed that I spotted her coming out of one of the vast majority of grocery stores that weren’t posted.
DG, The Soviet Union and Red China had gun control yet Millions were murdered. Could you explain?
England had a much lower murder rate than we did even when our gun laws were relatively equal. Some things are cultural and somethings are affected by other factors like search and seizure laws.
DG,
What JoelR said.
Mitch, will you care to comment, as you indicated back in the “discussion” on Mahablog, about the correlation not only in crime stats, but also in the stats which correlate national gun ownership with gun deaths per capita?
I’m not sure what you’re hinting at here.
“Gun deaths” is fairly meaningless. It includes suicides (over half of all “gun deaths”, drug and gang crimes (which are well over half the homicides), and self-defense shootings, which are an almost completely unambiguous good thing.
That seemed to have been ignored now, twice.
Right. I’ve been writing about the issue for eight years, and there is a solid 45 years of literature about the inefficacy of gun control and the value of loose regulations for the law-abiding.
Ignored?
Really?
…er, it’s an interesting allegation…
…that one might even call…
“Risibly unsubstantiable”…
…except that it’s have to climb up a few notches…
…to get to “risible”…
…or even “too inaccurate for English rhetoric to measure.
To say that I “ignore”…
…any infinitesimal facet of this issue…
…is a bit like saying that you and Pen…
…write with drum-tight concision!
(No insult intended, I’m just pointing out…
…that there is hardly a part of this issue, whether social…
…legal…
…historical…
…or personal and part of my canon of anecdotes…
…to say nothing of statistical…
…that I’ve not covered on this issue
…just as a casual sampling.
Ignored?
Doh!
Meh. It matters little until we also have the Castle Doctrine (aka”No Duty to Retreat”)
Amen Bubba.
“joelr Says: ………..I did ask her how she handled the problem buying gas — there weren’t any posted gas stations, and she explained that her (apparently expendable) husband was going to handle that for her. I figured she could deal with the lack of posted dentists by mailing in her teeth, and silently allowed as how I didn’t want to know how she was going to deal with her gynecologist…”
That’s just so rich, God love you Joel !!
mnbubba….unless I’m mistaken we don’t have a duty to retreat in our homes?? Is that what you meant?
“Castle Doctrine” is sort of an abused term, what exactly do you mean?
Kevin,
You’re neither mistaken nor correct.
THere is no “duty to retreat”, but there is the requirement, as part of an affirmative “self-defense” claim, to do everything “reasonable” to avoid using lethal force.
Depending on your county attorney and jury, “reasonable” might mean yelling “Go away, I’ve got a gun”, or it might mean buying a ticket to Novosibirsk to avoid a confrontation.
Which brings us around to the need for Tony Cornish’s “stand your ground” billl, which will remove the ambiguity from self-defense situations.
Fair enough Mitch, my issue was the use of “duty to retreat”….is not synonymous with Castle Doctrine.
We already don’t have a duty to retreated, as spelled out in State vs Glowacki. I guess I consider the “reasonable” portion of the self-defense language is a whole other legal mess.
Kevin, it’s not your fault. NRA — about which, many wonderful things can be said, but this isn’t one — has been referring to the removing-of-the-duty-to-retreat obligation as the “Castle Doctrine.” That is, in large part, because some states (unlike Minnesota), require retreat, if practical and safe, even in the home. That’s why I prefer “Stand Your Ground”. It makes it lawful — if not always wise — to refuse to retreat, as long as you’re in a place where you legally have the right to be.
Stand your ground is good. Pre-charge review would be better.
As it is now, the Prosecutor can charge you with a crime and take you to trial even if the weight of evidence is overwhemlingly on your side. They might do that to make a political statement, to curry favor with cops, to gain notariety for a later run at higher office, or just out of personal crusade to save the world (see: Duke University non-rape, the Jordan sex cases, or Treptow).
Even knowing they can’t win in court, the prosecutor might try to squeeze you to plead guilty by piling on charges, threatening to charge your wife or take away your kids, freezing your assets, and running up your attorney’s bill into the tens of thousands of dollars.
When the prosecutor charges a person who used a weapon with a crime, the person ought to have a quick hearing to present her side of the story so a judge can determine if there’s a reasonable liklihood the state can prevail on the charges. If not, dismiss them early and save everybody a lot of time and money.
Hey JoelR – good new in Ramsey County. Your course completion certificate so impressed the Sheriff that he mailed my CCW renewal in a week! Thanks!
.