Hey, it worked for me!
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3962907.html
New gun law makes activists of couple attending rally
Nolan Zavoral, Star Tribune
Published June 30, 2003 GUNS30
Minnesota's new handgun law has done more than make it easier for citizens to carry a weapon in public. It also has given rise to opponents taking their first plunge into political activism.
Among them are Dominic and Sandy Hilleshein, a married couple from Dodge Center, Minn., who attended their first rally against the law Sunday at the Eagan Community Center. They stood with about 150 other people to hear speeches and songs and to sign petitions against the law, which has led to hundreds of new permit-holders since Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed the bill in April.
"This is my first rally of any kind," Sandy Hilleshein said before nearly two hours of speeches and songs. "This whole thing scares me. I don't see why people have to have them -- guns -- and now they can be concealed."
The Hillesheins are in their 50s. Dominic is a teacher, and Sandy is a mortgage lender. Both signed and circulated petitions to repeal the handgun law.
"I've never been for guns, period," Dominic Hilleshein said. "And I don't understand why the rush to get this into law so quick -- on the part of the legislators and the governor."
It was no accident that the rally was held in Pawlenty's home suburb of Eagan.
"It's in the governor's back yard . . . so that the governor will listen to people in Minnesota," said Rep. Nora Slawik, DFL-Maplewood. "He signed it the day it was passed. He didn't seem to take time to read it."
Slawik said more than 7,000 people from throughout Minnesota had signed the repeal petition. The goal was 10,000 signatures "by State Fair time," she said, adding that she knew it would be an uphill fight.
"Our second option would be to get the [current law] fixed up," she said. "If guns were not allowed by law in churches and businesses, it would be a much better bill."
Gail Voss, a lawyer and editor from St. Paul, attended the rally with her 4-year-old daughter, Sadie.
"I'm not against guns in general," she said. "I grew up in South Dakota, and my father and my brothers hunted. But I believe that by carrying a handgun you're willing to say you'd shoot another human being. I don't understand that."
Slawik said before the rally that she had heard a rumor that a supporter of the gun law planned to show up wearing a holstered gun, even though a sign banning guns was prominently displayed outside the large meeting room. No such person was seen among the handful of gun-law supporters quietly holding signs outside the room.
"Something like that would be politically dumb," said Tim Grant of Richfield, one of the sign-carriers. He showed his new plastic gun-permit card and said the fear of violence expressed by many people in the room is unfounded.
"It's been shown in FBI crime statistics that crime goes down in states with conceal-and-carry laws," he said.
But Chuck Handlon, a high school chemistry teacher from Rochester, sees it differently, based on the official legislative estimate that gun-holders in Minnesota would increase from 12,000 to 90,000.
"You can't do a cost analysis on something like this," he said. "You should assume that with this law, gun injuries and deaths increase. Even if you say you don't have 15 times [the crime] because of the permits, is any of that worth a single death?"
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3962907.html
New gun law makes activists of couple attending rally
Nolan Zavoral, Star Tribune
Published June 30, 2003 GUNS30
Minnesota's new handgun law has done more than make it easier for citizens to carry a weapon in public. It also has given rise to opponents taking their first plunge into political activism.
Among them are Dominic and Sandy Hilleshein, a married couple from Dodge Center, Minn., who attended their first rally against the law Sunday at the Eagan Community Center. They stood with about 150 other people to hear speeches and songs and to sign petitions against the law, which has led to hundreds of new permit-holders since Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed the bill in April.
"This is my first rally of any kind," Sandy Hilleshein said before nearly two hours of speeches and songs. "This whole thing scares me. I don't see why people have to have them -- guns -- and now they can be concealed."
The Hillesheins are in their 50s. Dominic is a teacher, and Sandy is a mortgage lender. Both signed and circulated petitions to repeal the handgun law.
"I've never been for guns, period," Dominic Hilleshein said. "And I don't understand why the rush to get this into law so quick -- on the part of the legislators and the governor."
It was no accident that the rally was held in Pawlenty's home suburb of Eagan.
"It's in the governor's back yard . . . so that the governor will listen to people in Minnesota," said Rep. Nora Slawik, DFL-Maplewood. "He signed it the day it was passed. He didn't seem to take time to read it."
Slawik said more than 7,000 people from throughout Minnesota had signed the repeal petition. The goal was 10,000 signatures "by State Fair time," she said, adding that she knew it would be an uphill fight.
"Our second option would be to get the [current law] fixed up," she said. "If guns were not allowed by law in churches and businesses, it would be a much better bill."
Gail Voss, a lawyer and editor from St. Paul, attended the rally with her 4-year-old daughter, Sadie.
"I'm not against guns in general," she said. "I grew up in South Dakota, and my father and my brothers hunted. But I believe that by carrying a handgun you're willing to say you'd shoot another human being. I don't understand that."
Slawik said before the rally that she had heard a rumor that a supporter of the gun law planned to show up wearing a holstered gun, even though a sign banning guns was prominently displayed outside the large meeting room. No such person was seen among the handful of gun-law supporters quietly holding signs outside the room.
"Something like that would be politically dumb," said Tim Grant of Richfield, one of the sign-carriers. He showed his new plastic gun-permit card and said the fear of violence expressed by many people in the room is unfounded.
"It's been shown in FBI crime statistics that crime goes down in states with conceal-and-carry laws," he said.
But Chuck Handlon, a high school chemistry teacher from Rochester, sees it differently, based on the official legislative estimate that gun-holders in Minnesota would increase from 12,000 to 90,000.
"You can't do a cost analysis on something like this," he said. "You should assume that with this law, gun injuries and deaths increase. Even if you say you don't have 15 times [the crime] because of the permits, is any of that worth a single death?"
Yeesh, this moron can't even get a utilitarian argument right. Here's a hint: crimes often result in death or innocent people.