As of yesterday, 132,552 Minnesotans have current, valid carry permits.
And as the Gun Owners CIvil Rights Alliance notes, the rate of applications and issuances is zooming almost geometrically, even as the bobbleheads in our legislature try to ratchet back our Second Amendment rights:
The increase over last month (7,213), is also a record, breaking last month’s record (5,765), which broke the record set the month before that (4,800), which broke the record set a couple months after the carry law passed in 2003 (3918).
And if that nearly-vertical total line doesn’t smack you in the head, perhaps this chart – the monthly delta in permits in circulation – will:
Among Minnesotans who are over 21 and have clean criminal records, 132,552 is right around 3% of the entire population. That’s huge; the House Research staff back in 2003 figured maybe 70-90,000 Minnesotans would get permits, eventually. We’re almost double that now, and the more Michael Paymar and Ron Latz talk, the faster people sign up for their card.
And if each of them could pony up a buck, GOCRA could afford to have a full-time lobbyist at the Capitol to make sure Heather Martens’ lies were being countered in real-time.
The lessons are obvious:
- Minnesotans – the smart ones, anyway – aren’t fooled. The DFL majority, despite Governor
MessingerDayton’s blandishments, is run by gun grabbers. - If you are a law-abiding citizen, you should get your permit. Even if you never plan to carry a firearm; it’s a good primer in the law, and every permit granted to a law-abiding citizen sends the right message to Senator Latz and Representatives Paymar, Hausman and Martens; we’re not the problem; we’re not fooled; we’re not going anywhere, and we’re not going down without a fight.
- You should join GOCRA. The Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance is the single most successful grass-roots political organization in Minnesota (emphasis on Grass Roots; GOCRA isn’t supported by plutocrats with deep pockets, or foundation money) today. It’s like a “Spanky and Our Gang” movie come to life, a bunch of regular guys and gals who got together and have, over the past 15 years or so, moved mountains. And they need all us Real Americans (people who care about all ten amendments in the Bill of Rights) to beat back the orcs. Come on out, there’s plenty of room.
- It’s a great time to become an activist. There may be things in life more fun than being in a room with a couple of hundred like-minded fellow freedom fighters, watching half a dozen bobbleheaded orc-sympathizers wallowing in their ignorance. But few of those other things are this inexpensive!
Now is the time!
Already have a PTC and just signed up with GOCRA. Thanks for the reminder, Mitch.
I prefer my entertainment to be violent. I go to slasher movies. I watch hockey for the fights. I supported concealed carry because my Democrat representative PROMISED me blood in the streets: every fender-bender a shootout. Endless entertainment, delivered right to my commute, for free. I was promised.
I am disappointed. Permit holders make up 3% of the population so by rights, they ought to be committing AT LEAST 3% of the shootings. Come on, people, what are you waiting for? Get the lead out!
North Korea is getting really scary, Obamacare is starting to crumble, the Dow just dropped 111 points, and all that President Obama can find to do is run around pimping meaningless gun control issues.
I guess that’s the way you get to vote “present” when you’re the president. Kind of like the big-mouthed, skinny kid in the gang who always picks on the weakest target he can find when a “rumble” is about to start.
Time for another vacation …
Discussions about North Korea are really discussions about China: North Korea would have been a chapter in the history books long ago had China not been the leviathan next door. There have been many bizarre regimes throughout history, but they have usually disintegrated due to poor leadership or buckled to stronger, overpowering nation-states. So, what’s the deal with North Korea? Why have they lasted so long? The answer is simple: China’s implicit and explicit support. Since the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, the West has never viewed the North Korean problem as bilateral. China has been behind the North Korean regime every step of the way and has behaved like the reluctant older brother forced to babysit an unruly teen – yes, they are family insomuch as they are communist, but they are weary of the sight of one another. Indeed, the Communist Party in China plays “George Milton” to North Korea’s “Lennie Small” and thus opens itself up to suspicion and disappointment from other nations. Eventually, as China becomes more capitalist (which is inevitable), they’ll wake up to the reality that the North Korean government is beyond hope and arrange to meet the old Stalinist regime at the riverbed.