Gun debate continues as law reaches one-year mark [Michigan CCW]

LANSING, Mich. (AP) Joel Stanley is still getting used to the feeling of the small Walther PPK pistol tucked inside his waistband.

``I've had to fight my instinct to adjust it constantly,'' said the research chemist for a fuel cell company. ``I wanted it because I could have it. I don't live in a bad area, I don't go through dangerous areas, but to have the option of protecting myself gives me peace of mind.''

Stanley, 29, of Wyandotte is one of the 51,491 people licensed in the past year to carry a concealed weapon. Since last July 1, a new state law has made it easier to get a concealed weapons permit.

Under the old law, applicants had to demonstrate a need for a permit to their county gun board. A month before the new concealed weapons law took effect, 59,145 people had permits, but half of those were restricted to hunting and target shooting.

The new law allows people to receive concealed weapon permits if they're 21, don't have a history of mental illness and have completed a gun safety course.

People who've been convicted of a felony can't receive a permit under the new law. Those who've been convicted of a misdemeanor in the last three years or certain misdemeanors, such as reckless driving or assault, in the last eight years also are ineligible.

Of the 62,284 concealed weapons permit requests received in the state since the law took effect, 83 percent have been granted and 1 percent have been denied, according to Michigan State Police records. Approximately 10,017 requests 16 percent still are being processed, records show.

Michigan is one of 32 states that has a so-called ``shall-issue'' law. Indiana is Michigan's only neighbor that has a similar concealed weapon law. Last year, the Minnesota Senate killed a move to make it easier to receive a concealed weapon permit.

Ohio is the only state in the upper Midwest considering a less restrictive concealed weapons law, according to the National Rifle Association. The NRA is using Michigan's experience with its concealed weapons law to sell the idea to the Ohio Legislature.

``It is important that Michigan passed that law because it shows that nothing bad has happened,'' said Todd Adkins, NRA spokesman. ``The passage of `shall issue' in Michigan has been extraordinarily helpful in Ohio.''

The state police won't have a total number of how many concealed weapon permit holders used their guns or brandished them until the department files its annual report in mid-July. In one known case, a Washtenaw County man has been charged with brandishing a gun in a road rage incident.

During the first year of the law, 19 permits were revoked for violating provisions of the concealed weapons law and 26 were suspended because county gun board members suspected the permit holder was dangerous. In most cases, they based that decision on a permit holder facing a criminal charge that hasn't gone to court.

Opponents who waged a legal battle to have the law postponed until it was approved by a statewide vote say they're worried about having more guns in Michigan.

``Guns are a whole lot more available now and that should make us all take pause,'' said Carolynne Jarvis of the Michigan Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence.

The group collected signatures to give voters a chance to vote against the new law, but the Michigan Supreme Court said the measure couldn't be challenged by a referendum.

For Neva LaRue, a high school teacher from the small Lapeer County community of North Branch, carrying a concealed weapon makes her feel safer.

``If you spend a quarter century of your life being beaten, you become a mouse and I was,'' said LaRue. She said her abusive ex-husband didn't let her out of the house without permission during her 24-year marriage.

She was denied a concealed weapons permit twice before the new law took effect. ``Now I go out in the world and enjoy my life in a way I never imagined,'' she said.

LaRue is one of the 5,308 women who received a concealed weapons permit in the first year of the new law. There were 46,851 men who received permits in that time, the state police said.

The tidal wave of applications that came in under the new law quadrupled the workload for the Kent County Clerk's office, said County Clerk Mary Hollinrake. Her office has processed 2,408 applications during the law's first year.

``At the beginning, we were getting hundreds of applications a week. We were inundated with applications,'' she said. ``Regardless of how one feels about the law, that is a ton of work.''

Wayne County, the state's largest county, has had difficulty handling the crush of concealed weapons applications. Thousands of Wayne County residents have waited months for the county to process their applications.

Stanley, the Wyandotte chemist, applied for his concealed weapons permit last Dec. 7 but didn't receive it until June 10.

So far, the county has processed about 70 percent of the 6,545 applications it has received, said Jim Byrd of the Wayne County Sheriff's Department. But the average wait for a permit is still about four months, he said.

Byrd attributes the long wait to the large number of applications. More than 1,000 a week poured in after the law first took effect. He also said the county is processing concealed weapon permits that used to be handled by local police offices under the old law.

``It's one thing when you tell the farmer he's going to bring the crop in by hand,'' he said. ``It's another thing to cut off his hands.''

The state police have spent $513,838 to enact the law since it took effect last year, department spokesman Mike Prince said. The department received $1 million when the law took effect and another $1 million for the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 2001, he said. The original $1 million prevented the law from being challenged in a referendum.

Now that they've had a year's experience with the new law, state police and some local government officials say the concealed weapons application process, which includes background checks and fingerprint analysis, is running smoothly.

``The biggest thing we've had to deal with was the volume, but now it's pretty much leveled off,'' said Michigan State Police spokesman Dave Turner. ``We don't run into very many problems any more. It's going pretty smoothly.''

But an attorney for the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, which helped gathered thousands of petition signatures in an effort to put the law on the ballot, said it's too early to tell what the law's outcome will be.

``One might come to the conclusion that there's no problem here because in the first year the sky hasn't fallen,'' attorney Mike Zagaroli said. With thousands of additional guns on the street, ``without question there's going to be injuries and deaths. ``When? That remains to be seen.''

``without question there's going to be injuries and deaths..."

Yeah, to criminals trying to commit crimes against those defending themselves.

``Guns are a whole lot more available now and that should make us all take pause,'' said Carolynne Jarvis of the Michigan Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence.

I assume by "us all" she means criminals, right?

Right!?

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Oh, really? What ever happened to the "OK Corral" stuff? Whatever happened to thousands of people killing one another over traffic accidents, or all of the other dire predictions?

If it "remains to be seen" after an entire year, then maybe "without question" needs to be reconsidered. This is simple denial - "I know I'm right, I'm just not right yet" is much more comforting than "I was wrong" if not nearly as honest.

And where's "the blood running in the streets," "the shootout at the OK corral," and every other exaggerated cliche that the anti-self defense lobby was hyperventilating about?

Did you see this?

No, I just got back into town Sunday night. I go away for a week and a half and everything goes to heck. Decent stories in the media, changes at the top - the world's upside down!

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