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Lynda Boudreau: Don't listen to fearmongers on gun law
Lynda Boudreau
Published May 25, 2003 BOUD25
Let's examine the fearmongering arguments made by lawmakers already trying to repeal Minnesota's new conceal-carry law and see how they hold up.
If one were to accept that there will be mass bedlam in Minnesota because of this new law, we would also have to accept as fact that 34 other state governments that have shall-issue conceal-carry statutes are casting a blind eye to a major public safety concern. Does that make sense? Would 34 other states really look the other way while the public safety was being endangered the way the fearmongers predict? Of course not.
Not only does that fly squarely in the face of common sense, but it also suggests that all of us who have visited shall-issue states -- like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, South Dakota and North Dakota -- missed all of the Wild West shootouts by permit holders while we were there. But of course, we didn't miss anything. The fact is, most of us probably didn't even know we were in a shall-issue state because permit holders simply don't cause problems.
One uniform truth throughout these 34 states is that permit holders are law-abiding citizens who remain law-abiding after getting their permits. I know the fearmongers wish it were more complicated than that, but it really isn't. Laws are made for the law-abiding to follow, and conceal-carry is no different. That's why you've never had a conversation with a Floridian, Pennsylvanian or South Dakotan who claimed to be in mortal danger because of a shall-issue statute.
And while the fearmongers in the Legislature say that they will seek to repeal the new conceal-carry law every year or as long as it takes, it's interesting to note that not one single state has ever repealed a shall-issue statute once such a law was put in place.
A recent phone call I received illustrates why. After several legislators made ridiculous claims that the Minnesota State Fair was now going to be unsafe because of the new law (even though permit holders already can carry on the fairgrounds under the current law), I got a call from an Indiana resident who shared that, with over 20 years of shall-issue experience, there has not been one reported incident of wrongdoing by a permit holder at the Indiana State Fair. Not one.
You would think that the opponents of this law would have contacted the other shall-issue states, such as Indiana, to find out some of these basic facts, but I guess sometimes the truth gets in the way of a good horror story.
So if such laws have worked fine in other states and permit-holders have not been a problem, why should Minnesota be any different? Are Minnesotans less law-abiding or less trustworthy than citizens in other states? It seems the opponents of the new law must subscribe to that flawed notion, but I couldn't disagree more.
In fact, we don't even need to look at the other 34 states to answer these questions. In Ottertail County in west central Minnesota (pop: 60,000), 1,300 residents have conceal-carry permits. The sheriffs in Ottertail County have been practicing their own version of shall-issue for years. If the Wild West rhetoric of the fearmongers were accurate, wouldn't Ottertail County be the most dangerous place in our state? It's not -- not even close.
The fact is, Minnesota already has over 11,000 permit holders, and not one incident of a permit holder causing problems has been brought forward anywhere at any time -- period.
As in other states, permit-holders are not committing workplace violence, their firearms are not being lost and found by children, they're not engaging in road-rage bloodbaths, there have been no permit-holders involved in bar fights gone mad, no permit-holder has shot up a city council chamber, and if there was a shootout among permit-holders inside a sports stadium, I must have missed it. While dreamed-up, hypothetical stories are a favorite tactic of the fearmongers, the facts in the historical record of shall-issue conceal-carry statutes tell a much different story.
Lynda Boudreau, R-Faribault, is the House author of the Minnesota Citizens Personal Protection Act, which becomes law on Wednesda
Startribe Artical
Lynda Boudreau
Published May 25, 2003 BOUD25
Let's examine the fearmongering arguments made by lawmakers already trying to repeal Minnesota's new conceal-carry law and see how they hold up.
If one were to accept that there will be mass bedlam in Minnesota because of this new law, we would also have to accept as fact that 34 other state governments that have shall-issue conceal-carry statutes are casting a blind eye to a major public safety concern. Does that make sense? Would 34 other states really look the other way while the public safety was being endangered the way the fearmongers predict? Of course not.
Not only does that fly squarely in the face of common sense, but it also suggests that all of us who have visited shall-issue states -- like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, South Dakota and North Dakota -- missed all of the Wild West shootouts by permit holders while we were there. But of course, we didn't miss anything. The fact is, most of us probably didn't even know we were in a shall-issue state because permit holders simply don't cause problems.
One uniform truth throughout these 34 states is that permit holders are law-abiding citizens who remain law-abiding after getting their permits. I know the fearmongers wish it were more complicated than that, but it really isn't. Laws are made for the law-abiding to follow, and conceal-carry is no different. That's why you've never had a conversation with a Floridian, Pennsylvanian or South Dakotan who claimed to be in mortal danger because of a shall-issue statute.
And while the fearmongers in the Legislature say that they will seek to repeal the new conceal-carry law every year or as long as it takes, it's interesting to note that not one single state has ever repealed a shall-issue statute once such a law was put in place.
A recent phone call I received illustrates why. After several legislators made ridiculous claims that the Minnesota State Fair was now going to be unsafe because of the new law (even though permit holders already can carry on the fairgrounds under the current law), I got a call from an Indiana resident who shared that, with over 20 years of shall-issue experience, there has not been one reported incident of wrongdoing by a permit holder at the Indiana State Fair. Not one.
You would think that the opponents of this law would have contacted the other shall-issue states, such as Indiana, to find out some of these basic facts, but I guess sometimes the truth gets in the way of a good horror story.
So if such laws have worked fine in other states and permit-holders have not been a problem, why should Minnesota be any different? Are Minnesotans less law-abiding or less trustworthy than citizens in other states? It seems the opponents of the new law must subscribe to that flawed notion, but I couldn't disagree more.
In fact, we don't even need to look at the other 34 states to answer these questions. In Ottertail County in west central Minnesota (pop: 60,000), 1,300 residents have conceal-carry permits. The sheriffs in Ottertail County have been practicing their own version of shall-issue for years. If the Wild West rhetoric of the fearmongers were accurate, wouldn't Ottertail County be the most dangerous place in our state? It's not -- not even close.
The fact is, Minnesota already has over 11,000 permit holders, and not one incident of a permit holder causing problems has been brought forward anywhere at any time -- period.
As in other states, permit-holders are not committing workplace violence, their firearms are not being lost and found by children, they're not engaging in road-rage bloodbaths, there have been no permit-holders involved in bar fights gone mad, no permit-holder has shot up a city council chamber, and if there was a shootout among permit-holders inside a sports stadium, I must have missed it. While dreamed-up, hypothetical stories are a favorite tactic of the fearmongers, the facts in the historical record of shall-issue conceal-carry statutes tell a much different story.
Lynda Boudreau, R-Faribault, is the House author of the Minnesota Citizens Personal Protection Act, which becomes law on Wednesda
Startribe Artical