Voof
Posted on 07/09/2009 5:14:23 AM PDT by marktwain
Firearms play a large roll in Teller County. More than twice as many county citizens own firearms than the state average.
“I think a lot more than 50 percent of county residents have at least one firearm in their homes,” Teller County Sheriff Kevin Dougherty said. “That’s a huge underestimation, it’s probably closer to 75 percent.”
The state average for household firearm ownership is about 34 percent, according to a 2001 survey conducted by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System based in North Carolina. Firearm ownership figures often are inaccurate because they rely on self-reporting and many gun owners will not report ownership even with assurances of anonymity. Buying a firearm, which requires a criminal background check, does not require either registration or a permit.
Firearms can be openly carried in many places, including, as of April, many federal forests and parks, but cannot be carried into federal, state and county buildings. Also individual business owners rules against open carry must be heeded, Dougherty said.
To carry a concealed firearm requires a permit issued by the county sheriff. Dougherty’s office has issued slightly more than 3,000 concealed weapon permits — usually called concealed carry permits — most of them after Colorado law changed in 2003. Teller has a population of about 22,000.
From 2003 to date, Douglas County, with a population of about 270,000, issued about 5,000 permits. The El Paso County Colorado Population Sheriff’s Office issued 10,372 between March 2003 and May 2009. The county has an estimated population of 550,000.
With these figures it’s easy to see that a larger percentage of Teller County residents have such permits even though it has issued the smallest number of actual permits.
According to Colorado Bureau of Investigation figures, from March of 2003 through April 2009, 72,665 concealed weapons permits have been requested statewide. Only 261 of those requests were prohibited.
While Dougherty has seen a steady number of requests through the years, Douglas County issued 800 permits between the November 2008 election and the end of the year and about another 900 since Jan. 1 this year. Before last winter, Douglas usually issued an average of about 600 permits per year. El Paso County issued 457 in November and December and 2,314 so far this year. Before the election it averaged about 990 a year.
Before 2003, sheriffs, and police chiefs in some jurisdictions, issued permits at their discretion.
“Even if they met all the criteria, if something didn’t feel right somehow, we could deny the permit,” Dougherty said. “That has changed. Now if they meet the criteria and pass all the background checks, we have to issue them a permit and we’re not allowed to ask them why they want it.”
However, he said, if he could ask most would say they want a concealed weapon permit for personal safety.
“They might live alone or maybe they’re business people carrying large sums of money,” he said. “They’re mostly males but 25-30 percent are women.”
To get a concealed carry permit, which must be renewed every five years, Dougherty said the applicant must be at least 21 years old and a citizen or legal resident of the United States. He or she must pass a criminal background and fingerprint check, pass a certified gun safety course and have no felonies and no history of mental illness. Permits must be renewed every five years.
Despite its high numbers of gun owners, the county has had an insignificant number of crimes that involve firearms, Dougherty said.
“All of our murders have been of the murder-suicide variety,” he said.
Woodland Park businessman John Shubin, a member of the National Rifle Association and other organizations and staunch Second Amendment supporter, said there are several reasons why there are so many guns in Teller County.
“The reasons are multifaceted,” he said. “A lot of them are hunters and their guns put food on the table. They’re independent and self-sufficient. They don’t have to run into town every day and many of them just aren’t cut out for city life. There is no hidden meaning. People with concealed carry permits and regular gun owners are not weird, not crazy. The bad names liberals have painted gun owners with is 180 degrees off reality.”
He added that the First Amendment, freedom of speech and religion, and the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, are of critical importance.
“If we don’t protect these rights, they’ll disappear,” he said.
That said, he also is a staunch proponent of making sure people who own guns are trained to use them safely.
“You have to train to do anything well,” he said. “I work on old cars and I have had to learn how to do that. The same goes for handling firearms safely.”
He recommends that firearm safety training should begin at age 7, 8 or 9 at the latest.
“Kids need to have a healthy respect for guns and what they can do,” Shubin said, adding that when he helped his 11-year-old nephew learn about guns the child said “Cool.”
“I said ‘whoa there, guns are not cool, guns are dangerous and you need to learn to handle them safely,’” he said. “Kids who learn that respect are not the ones who end up bringing guns to school.”
He said the reason there are so many antigun organizations these days is that people have gotten away from living close to the land.
“This is especially true of the younger generation,” he said. “They are so attuned to the electronic media, some are almost living in a world of virtual reality, that I question whether many kids who shoot others really understand what a gun can do. It isn’t real to them.”
There are many opportunities for young people to learn about gun safety. The National Rifle Association offers several youth gun safety programs, many of which are certified and can be used to meet the state’s hunter safety requirement before issuing a hunting license.
Boy Scouts earn rifle and shotgun merit badges and members of 4-H can enroll in sports shooting programs. Last year six 4-H boys and girls earned ribbons in air rifle and .22 caliber rifle competitions at the Colorado State Fair.
In fact, the state of Colorado is offering an Internet-Based Hunter Education Course on July 8 and 25 in Cripple Creek. Call 719-689-3514 for information.
There are many reasons people might want to own firearms. As was mentioned, there are hunters, but others are sports shooters. Shubin said he doesn’t hunt but does like target practice. Others are collectors and there also are a few historic re-enactors in the county for whom a Civil War Era 58 Springfield Musket or Sharps carbine is a cherished possession.
Then, of course, everyone has heard about the so called survivalists, the ones who have moved back into the woods, holing up against horrors to come.
“No matter where you are, there will always be a fringe element,” Shubin said. “As long as they aren’t harming anyone, leave them alone.”
It is difficult to find survivalists because they seldom advertise. Anonymity is part of their survival strategy.
There is another group, colloquially called preppers, who sometimes describe themselves as suburban or urban survivalists. They are “into emergency preparation,” getting ready for disasters but doing so with an eye to sheltering in place. Most don’t believe future disasters will be short-term and that all they’ll have to do is hold out until the government rescues them. They are learning to grow their own food, purify their own water and other skills needed to become more self-sufficient. Many of them have at least a year’s worth of food stashed away. And, like the survivalists, many preppers keep and carry guns.
Of course there is another side to guns. For every person who believes, like Shubin, that concealed weapons are a deterrent to crime, there is another who says gun ownership means more gun deaths.
“If criminals know that it’s a crap shoot that they’re going to be shot by a citizen with a concealed weapon, they’ll think twice about attacking them,” he said. “That’s what happened after Florida passed its concealed carry law — the crime rate went down.”
However, gun opponents look at U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics to make their case. Between 1999 to 2006 (the last year for which there are complete records) homicide has hovered between No. 3 and No. 5 for causes of death for all Coloradans up to the age of of 34, many of these homicides, sometimes more than half, are firearm related. After age 34 the chances of being murdered with any weapon falls out of the top 10 entirely.
However, those same statistics show that the No. 1 cause of death among Coloradans aged 1-44 is unintentional injury but here firearms have a small role. At least 80 percent of these deaths across the board are motor vehicle related. In most age groups, less than 2 percent of unintentional deaths are firearm related.
Where can people find guns in Teller County? There are two gun shops in Victor, another in Florissant.
Gus Conley has been selling firearms, handguns and hunting and target rifles out of his Victor shop, G & S Sporting Goods and Pawn, for 19 years. The other Victor shop caters to the black powder weapon collectors.
Nimrods Guns in Florissant also has been in business for a long time. Until last month Michael’s Motorcycles in Woodland Park also sold guns. There are a number of gun outlets in Colorado Springs, as well.
While there are many places to buy a gun and learn how to use it, lately buying ammunition has become difficult. Many ammo manufacturers have had a hard time keeping up with demand after so many people, fearing that a Democrat in the White House would mean more gun control, went out and bought any firearm they could afford.
The Woodland Park Walmart doesn’t sell anything heavier than air pistols, air rifles and BB guns, but it does sell ammunition for higher powered weapons.
“I encourage anyone trying to decide whether or not to buy a gun to take gun safety lessons and learn how to shoot,” Shubin said. “For a lot of people, fear is what keeps them from owning a gun. Develop a level of comfort with the gun and make sure it fits your physique. Then you have to practice — it’s like anything else you want to learn well — you have to practice.”
He added that guns are part of Teller County’s Western heritage and that while the West has been glorified in the movies, there is some basis in fact.
“Guns ensure our independence,” he said. “One of the strengths of this country is that we can have different opinions and still get along. Of course, if someone tries to ram gun control down our throats there will be problems — don’t try to take away our freedom and independence.”
And, how many of that 75% EVER commit a crime? I'd like to see the crime stats of the 75% gun owners compared to the 25% of non gun owners.
Voof
2000 census data shows 22,000 population. 301 crimes were committed in 2000. That’s less than one per day.
Preppers: guys who wear striped button-down oxford shirts and Levi's 501 jeans with boating mocs, but own a riot shotgun and/or a black rifle.
:^)
If you are ever in Colorado Springs, for a convention or something, drive around to Cripple Creek, the county seat of Teller County. Maybe over to Victor. It’s just lovely country. And yes, since my childhood in the Springs, they have paved some of those roads. I’ve seen surmises that Rumson Creek in “Paint Your Wagon” was based on Cripple Creek. It can get windy there.
Up near those areas one is best advised not to travel down certain dirt roads without an invitation from the resident/owner.
There’s a reason those people live way back where they do.
If you want an interesting evening, sit in the bar at the main hotel in Cripple Creek (dont recall the name) and listen to the locals talk after a few drinks. Some of it makes Art Bell seem positively mainstream!
The Elkhorn area of Park county used to be so isolated that I recall that they had a party line AND a phone on a pole similar to TV show Green Acres!
And up there, who doesn’t own a gun? or four?
Of course they should be able to ask why 'cause I'm sure hundreds of people are applying for permits so they can shoot their uncle or rob a bank or something. If they could only ask them why they wanted the permit they could prevent all these crimes. I'm sure you have to have a concealed carry permit to get into the International Brotherhood of Hit Men (I.B.H.M) too.
Actually I doubt Jeffco is 75%. There’s a lot of people in from California and such who don’t own any. I would say among old time residents the rate is as high as you say.
Oh, I don't know. Back when I used to own firearms I was pretty up-front about it. That was before the tragic boating accident when they all dropped to the bottom of the lake. I can't say I remember which lake, exactly - it was so long ago...
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