From: [d c d] at [se.houston.geoquest.slb.com] (Dan Day) Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,talk.politics.guns Subject: Re: ACLU - Are no lovers of freedom or liberty Date: 29 Jun 1994 20:33:07 GMT From an article published in the Dallas Morning News, Sunday April 29, 1992: ___Concealed weapons can prevent tragedies like Killeen's___ By: Dr. Suzanna Gratia On Dec. 17, 1991, in Anniston, Ala., a restaurant patron defended himself and saved the lives of nearly two dozen others held hostage by two armed would-be robbers. The reluctant hero, who was legally carrying his .45 caliber firearm, stopped both assailants before they could complete their crime or injure any other innocent customers. On Oct. 16,1991, in Killeen, Texas, an armed homicidal maniac methodically killed 22 people and then himself, facing no resistance from the scores of potential victims, including me. That tragedy will be forever etched in my memory. My parents were brutally murdered, and I was helpless to protect them. None of us in that restaurant could control our own destinies, for Texas politicians had seen fit to keep us disarmed. State law prohibits the concealed carrying of firearms, denying me or someone else the right to have a gun that day to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the rampages of a mad man. That's flat-out wrong. And I intend to do everything in my power to change that ill-gotten law to avert needless suffering by others. The violent incidents in Anniston , and Killeen ended far differently because of the laws governing the concealed carrying of firearms. Alabama has a fair concealed-carry law, but in Texas the government has said, in effect, that decent citizens can't be trusted to carry firearms for self-protection. The facts simply do not justify that conclusion. Despite claims of gun prohibitionists, allowing law-abiding citizens like me to choose to obtain a permit to legally carry a handgun in no way increases criminal behavior. In Florida, a concealed-carry reform law was passed in 1988. Anti-gun groups and the Florida media predicted an outbreak of shootings in the Sunshine State. But this fair and more uniform concealed-carry law simply hasn't shaken the foundations of the Florida legal systm, as doom- sayers predicted. According to John Fuller, general counsel for the Florida Sheriff's Association, "I haven't seen where we have had any instance of persons with permits causing violent crimes, and I'm constantly on the lookout." In fact, it has the opposite effect on homicide rates. After statewide concealed-carry law reforms were enacted in Florida, the homicide rate decreased 6 percent between l987 and 1990 as the national rate climbed 13 percent. In Oregon, reformed carry laws adopted in 1990 returned a 20.8 prcent drop in the homicide rate. Again, the gun prohibitionists had predicted mayhem, and again, their predictions proved false. Research proves why: A government-funded survey of 1,874 felons by noted criminologist James D. Wright and Peter H. Rossi, designed to determine the experiences of convicted felons with flrearms and their perceptions of gun laws, found about 40 prcent of the felons sampled said they had decided not to commit a crime because they feared the victim was carrying a firearm. And 34 percent had been "scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim." Clearly, concealed carry laws translate to saving the lives of loved ones in a manner simllar to health or life insurance. If ever there arises that time when it is needed, no substitute will do, and I don't intend to be victimized again. In drafting the Bill of Rights, the Founding Fathers acknowledged self-protection as a prime goal incorporated in the Second Amendment. In quoting criminologist Cesare Beccaria, still renowned for his work On Crimes and Punishments penned in 1764, Thomas Jefferon said: "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . .. disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." The question of carrying a concealed handgun is one that is highly personal. It is a choice that should be made by the individual. And it is a choice that should not be forbidden to an honest citizen like myself by an overprotective government, particularly one which has no responsibility to provide real protection when my life is threatened. American are expressing concerns regarding police protection when the explosion in crime literally overwhelms police departments across the nation. In a public opinion survey done by the Gallup Report for the U.S. Justice Department's Sourcebook of Criminal Statistics, citizens were asked, "How much confidence do you have in the ability of the police to protect you from violent crime?" Nationwide, 50 percent of the American public polled responded "not very much" to "none". In the District of Columbia, where there has been a virtual gun ban since 1976, the local court of appeals followed the long accepted rule that the police have no duty to protect individuals, only the community at large. In states with no provision for concealed carry, legislation should be proposed, passed and enacted to allow law-abiding citizens the chance to protect themselves from criminal attack. In those states that employ discriminatory and unfair concealed- carry laws which virtually forfeit citizen opportunities for these permits, legilation must shift the burden of proof to the issuing authority to show reasons for denial and away from the honest citizen seeking a permit. While organized police forces do attempt to protect the public, more and more they are unable to do. In fact, armed private citizens encounter and thwart three times as many criminals as law enforcement. This is not to suggest a diminished role for our nation's law enforcement, but rather to emphasize the importance of armed self-defense before police can respond to a crime in progress. Evidence indicates that the armed citizen is probably the single most effective deterrent to crime in the nation. When it comes to arbitrary enforcement or prohibition on the lawful concealed carrying of firearms, what has the law-abiding American public done to warrant such a mistrust of their competency and character? Ask your elected officials. I'm asking mine. Dr. Suzanna Gratia works at the Cove Chiropractic clinic in Copperas Cove.