Minnesota’s new Shall Issue (gun carry permits) law has now taken effect. If you live here in MN, or another state with Shall Issue laws, what are your comments about it?
Myself, I think that it’s a good thing, in a libertarian personal freedom sort of way. But even though I think the doomsday scenerios are wrong, I recognize that a lot of people are freaked out by the “concealed carry”* law.
I think it’s pretty scary to know that anywhere I now, I’m going to have to worry about a bunch of moronic would-be Clint Eastwoods packing heat. I don’t want to be in a restauraunt and have to worry that everyone’s going to pull out pistols and start blasting away at each other. I don’t want to have to worry that my daughter is going to be harmed in one those food fights.
This is sad. How many people just sit around every night, fondling their nine millimeters, fantasizing that one day they’ll get to be a hero and shoot somebody. Now they get to tote their little substitute penises around with them every where they go.
Thank God most businesses and government buildings have already posted signs saying “no firearms.” If all these little Travis Bickles know that they won’t be able to take their pea shooters inside anywhere then maybe they’ll leave them at home…or better yet not leave home to begin with.
Do you ever leave the state, Diogenes? I can virtually guarantee that someone you’ve walked past, in fact, has been carrying a gun. Probably hundreds of somebodys. And yet you’re still alive. How astonishing.
Proof that paranoia knows know bounds, especially when commingled with unreasonable ignorance.
Right. Because those situations are so likely.
**
Uh-huh. Chances are those few people already had a gun.
So what’s it like being paranoid, Diogenes? Is it tough to leave the house? Or conduct your everyday business?
I just keep thinking of a science fiction story I once read where there was gun duels for bad manners. Which may or may not be a good thing.
“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you.”
A gun is not a substitute penis. What is the outside range you can shoot someone with your penis. 15 feet? And that’s if they aren’t moving. Shooting a moving target with your penis is very hard.
Of course, there things a penis can do that a gun can’t. And aren’t those the things that make penises so much fun?
**
Yep, we all know that nobody ever carried a gun when it was illegal. We also have all sorts of evidence that shows states who issue concealed firearms permits have turned into the wild west with gun battles every day. I know you’re a cynic and believe that “Most men are withing a finger’s breadth of being mad” but please. Aren’t you suppose to use your intellect instead of this emotional garbage?
**
Beats me. I know I don’t ever want to kill another human being but I’d rather have the option of defending myself should my life be threatened. Or do you prefer honest citizens to be at the mercy of the wicked?
Those no gun signs have done wonders for preventing robberies of banks, liquor stores, and 7-11s.
Marc
Outside of the Twin Cities, MN is pretty much rural. Deer rifles and shotguns have always been a part of that culture, but gun crime has never run rampant in small town MN. Given the cultural predisposition of most of the residents towards self-restraint and law abiding behavior, there’s no particular reason to believe that “will issue” should be a problem.
Just wait. It’s going to be like Reservoir Dogs every time there’s a dispute ove a parking spot. This will end in tears, mark my words.
I’m assuming Diogenes is somewhat tongue in cheek. Can’t quite see the Minnesotans going Charles Whitman on us.
Of possible interest:
Michigan is a ‘Shall Issue’ state, I have been issued, but have yet to get into a cool Heat-style gunfight.
Maybe I need to move to Minnesota? Are they going to be the lone state to buck the trend in Shall-Issue states?
Methinks your wories are a wee bit overblown, Diogenes; Georgia has been a “shall issue” state for over a decade now–heck, unlike Minnesota, Georgia doesn’t even require a training course before issuing a concealed carry permit, just a background check–and yet I’ve never witnessed a single shoot-out over a disputed parking spot.
-Yep. They said almost the exact same thing when Florida went “shall issue” in what, '92?
“Blood in the streets”, “Dodge city over fender benders”, “a new meaning to road rage” and so on, ad nauseum.
We’re still waiting, by the way. Perhaps when their downward trend in crime since then starts coming back up. I mean, it has to what with all those hair-trigger lunatics packing heat for a decade now, they oughta be just about ready to explode, right?
Yep, let’s infringe everyone’s liberty because some people are paranoid.
For someone admitting to being over thirty, it must be really tough knowing puberty won’t happen for another twenty years Cynic.
I very much doubt that very many Minnesotans will start packing. Its just not very nice.
When I was a little boy in Waco, Tx (quiet little town, you never heard of it, nothing ever happens there…) the local paper had a special location, just below the comics section, where they would post the news of some yahoo getting shot in some local bar over nothing. About once a week, if memory serves. And Waco, the Athens on the Brazos, is not a big town.
But the worse aspect of this is the paranoia it fosters, rather than solves. The threat of random robbery is a boogyman, and fostering the fear of it is a repulsive mongering.
I’ve been mugged. Contrary to myth, it didn’t alter my political stance in the slightest. If I wouldn’t kill to obain somebody else’s wallet, why would I kill to keep mine? Usually ain’t much in it anyway. And the guy who did it? Probably dead by now. So it goes.
On the other hand, a small caliber handgun might be quite useful during mosquito season, to prevent them from carrying off chihuahuas.
If it’s a bogeyman, it does, or doesn’t, exist? I’m confused. If random crime exists, than maybe talking or thinking about it isn’t a bogeyman or a repulsive mongering but a reaction to environment a la human nature?
Again, is it paranoia if (a) random crime does exist; and (b) most Minnesotans don’t overreact and go out to buy a gun, nonetheless? Sounds more like multiple individualized, measured responses of moral free agents?
This just came out Monday:
""DALLAS (May 26, 2000) - Marking the fifth anniversary of Texas’ concealed carry law, a new report from the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) shows that Texans with concealed carry permits are far less likely to commit a serious crime than the average citizen.
“Many predicted that minor incidents would escalate into bloody shootouts if Texas passed a concealed-carry law,” said H. Sterling Burnett, a senior policy analyst at the NCPA and the author of the report. “That prediction was dead wrong.”
In 1995, Texas Gov. George W. Bush signed a law granting Texans the right to carry concealed firearms. This made Texas the 23 state to pass a concealed carry law since 1986.
According to the report, the slightly more than 200,000 Texans who have become licensed to carry a concealed firearm are much more law-abiding than the average person. Comparing arrest rates for example:
Texans who exercise their right to carry firearms are 5.7 times less likely to be arrested for a violent offense.
They are 14 times less likely to be arrested for a non-violent offense.
They are 1.4 times less likely to be arrested for murder.
The right to carry may also be affecting Texas’ crime rate in a positive way. Texas had a serious crime rate in the early 1990s that was 38 percent higher than the national average.
Since then, serious crime in Texas has dropped 50 percent faster than for the nation as a whole.
Murder rates have dropped 52 percent, compared to 33 percent nationally.
Rapes have fallen by 22 percent compared to 16 percent nationally. “”
You could certainly move to Washington DC where it is virtually impossible for any citizen to carry a gun to be able to defend himself, and also enjoy whatever crime rate Washington DC happens to have as a result of such policy. Perhaps you might think your children would be safer playing on the streets of Washington DC at night? You certainly dont have to worry at all about Washington DC residents pulling out pistols to defend themselves.
I believe that there are 15 states remaining which do not allow most of its law abiding citizens to defend themselves(i.e, where citizens cannot carry a gun). Perhaps you would feel safer in one of those, New York, New Jersey, California, etc. ? Just a thought.