Posted on 01/05/2006 12:39:22 PM PST by Pop Fly
VIEWPOINT: THE CONCEALED HANDGUN LAW: TEN YEARS LATER By Hon. Jerry Patterson
When the Texas Concealed Handgun Law took effect in 1996, pundits and naysayers predicted anarchy. Any minute, there would surely be mass violence as armed Texas citizens began roving the streets settling arguments with gunfire. Certainly, several proclaimed, within a year there would be blood in the streets as Texas returned to the days of the Wild West.
Ten years later the facts paint a different picture. Texas under the Concealed Handgun Law isn’t the Wild West, but the Mild West. No recurrent shootouts at four-way stops, no blood in the streets. Quite the contrary, Texans are safer than before.
But why are we safer? Why did the fears of the naysayers fail to materialize?
One of the reasons I authored Senate Bill 60, the Concealed Handgun Law, was because I trust my fellow Texans. Contrary to opinions expressed on almost every editorial page across the state, I knew that when law-abiding Texans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms was restored with the passage of S.B. 60, they would exercise good judgment and behave responsibly.
Ten years later, and the statistics continue to prove the point.
Since the passage of the Concealed Handgun Law, the FBI Uniform Crime Report shows an 18% drop in handgun murders, down from 838 in 1995 to 688 in 2004. And a 13% drop in handgun murders per 100,000 population, down from 4.5 murders per 100,000 Texans in 1995 to 3.95 per 100,000 in 2004.
In 2000, on the fifth anniversary of the Concealed Handgun Law, the National Center for Policy Analysis issued a report that indicated Texans with concealed carry permits are far less likely to commit a serious crime than the average citizen.
According to the report, the more than 200,000 Texans licensed to carry a concealed firearm are much more law-abiding than the average person.
The report illustrated that 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. And they are 1.4 times less likely to be arrested for murder.
H. Sterling Burnett, a senior policy analyst at the NCPA and the author of the report, concluded:
“Many predicted that minor incidents would escalate into bloody shootouts if Texas passed a concealed-carry law. That prediction was dead wrong,” Burnett said.
With 247,345 concealed handgun licenses active in Texas as of December 2005, the number of law-abiding licensees has had a positive effect on the crime rate.
Texas Department of Public Safety Uniform Crime Report indicates the overall crime rate in Texas has continued to drop over the past 10 years. In 1997, DPS reported 5,478 crimes per 100,000 Texans, based on a population of 19,355,427 Texans. In 2004, with almost 3 million more Texans, the crime rate is 5,032 per 100,000.
The effect of the Concealed Handgun Law has been so positive, it has converted some of its most outspoken initial critics.
John Holmes, former Harris County district attorney, wrote to me several years after the passage of the law.
“As you know, I was very outspoken in my opposition to the passage of the Concealed Handgun Act. I did not feel that such legislation was in the public interest and presented a clear and present danger to law abiding citizens by placing more handguns on our streets,” Holmes wrote. “Boy was I wrong. Our experience in Harris County , and indeed state-wide, has proven my initial fears absolutely groundless.”
Glenn White, president of the Dallas Police Association, shared this view. “I lobbied against the law in 1993 and 1995 because I thought it would lead to wholesale armed conflict. That hasn't happened,” White told the Dallas Morning News. “All the horror stories I thought would come to pass didn't happen. No bogeyman. I think it's worked out well, and that says good things about the citizens who have permits. I'm a convert.”
To the supporters of individual liberty and the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, this outcome is no surprise. However, the Concealed Handgun Law isn’t just about personal safety. Perhaps even deeper than its roots in constitutional freedom, the Concealed Handgun Law is about trust.
And after ten years, the Concealed Handgun Law is a shining example of what happens when elected officials have faith in their fellow Texans.
The legacy of Senate Bill 60 is grounded in the concept that our government should place its trust in us, not the other way around.
And on the radio a few weeks ago not only did Gov. Romney praise Mass' strict gun control laws but he also was glad that the law extended to BB guns.
I'll be making it 247,346 within a couple months.
Really? That scuttles any support I'd have for him. I thought he was supposed to be "conservative."
Indeed. Many years ago my wife worked in an office with the wife of the City's Chief of Detectives-- there was not one woman family member of his who didn't have a sidearm. Sometimes several- purse, glovebox, office desk. And I cannot think of a single policeman I've known whose families were not similarly equipped- the Good Guys know there is no substitute for being armed- just in case.
The effect of the Concealed Handgun Law has been so positive, it has converted some of its most outspoken initial critics.
Just not enough.
Indeed. And why is this just such a tough issue for the anti-gun crowd to wrap their minds around?? The logic beams forth more brightly than the sun. Kudos to Texas!
Hmph?! What's with Texas? Loss of backbone? :)
We killed a 34 game winning streak last night!
when will these anti-gun dems get it--the criminals with guns don't care about "legislation".
Yes, but that victory falls undder the "Needed Killing" category.
The few times I've heard him questioned on gun laws and the second amendment he's been firmly on the side of controls. (He apparently likes a well controlled quail population too!)
Carjackings probably are a better indicator- also "Hot Burglaries," because even the dumbest burglar knows that if a person has only one weapon, it's almost certainly in the house with them.
"...if we truly had our "constitutional right to keep and bear arms" restored, we wouldn't have to apply and pay for permission to do so."
That is THE major problem with CCW laws. Any time you need to get a "permit" to do something that is a "right" guaranteed by the Constitution, the powers to be who issued the "permit" can withdraw the same. So much for the "Right to keep and Bear Arms".
Massachusetts has very strict gun-control laws. And the Boston murder rate is at its highest point in 10 years.
probably Texans on vacation in Boston
I'd be looking for some anecdotes that back up the statistics; e.g., instances where someone with a firearm interceded, and stopped, a crime.
Excellent post! I would love to send this out to some of my liberal buddies, then again they'd find something emotional to start crying about. Facts are wasted on libs anyways.
Agreed. When I saw this over at Dallas Blog, I knew it should be posted here. I didn't even know it was the ten-year anniversary, and as the author points out, the sky has not fallen....far from it. It's always great when we see evidence of lessened gun control laws helping us.
How could permits increase murder rates? I suspect that any increase in the number of people who carry is accounted for by a few more women with guns in their purses.
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