One of the cardinal rules of journalism: don’t start an article with a statistic. It’ll turn off readers faster than Roseanne Barr singing the National Anthem. Naked. So I’ll say this much before the stat-laden info on concealed carry crime stats after the jump [via sfgate.com]: anyone who thinks that Americans exercising their Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms are more dangerous than the general population is meshuga. Perhaps even dangerously so. Common sense tells the tale. Even in those states with Constitutional Carry (no special permit required for concealed carry) legal gun toters have to pass a criminal background check and swear to God they’re not smoking meths. If these folks buy a gun, any gun, they have to pass another criminal background check. So they’re double secret probation safe for society. Not entirely, of course . . .
Of the 51,078 permits issued in Kansas since the law took effect in 2007, just 44 permit holders were charged with a crime committed while using a firearm, according to records from the Kansas attorney general’s office.
The Wichita Eagle reported that works out to one charge for every 1,161 permit holders, or 0.09 percent.
For those 44 permit holders charged, 17 had their licenses revoked because they were convicted of a crime that disqualifies them from having a permit.
So less than half of those .09 percent of revoked licenses were related to criminal activity. What’re the odds that half of those revocations were drug consumption related? In fact, I’d be willing to bet that none of them involved homicide. Here’s what we know . . .
While Kansas has since issued a little over 51,000 permits, 48,200 people hold one now, according to the attorney general’s office. Conviction of a felony while using a firearm brings a lifetime revocation. Aggravated battery is the leading cause for revocation in Kansas.
Some Kansans have their licenses revoked because they move out of state. Others have not renewed their licenses. A drunken driving conviction draws a one-year revocation. Conviction of a felony where a firearm was not used will bring a revocation of five to 10 years.
Clearly, unequivocally, logically, concealed carry weapons license holders are law-abiding citizens.
I know this may sound strange, but I’d be happier if the total number or even percentage of revocations was higher. That would indicate that a larger percentage of the population was legally carrying a firearm.
Which would be a good thing, not a bad thing, in terms of protecting our gun rights and making society safer for everyone. IMHO. But not everyone’s HO.
But Michael Birzer, criminal justice professor and director of the school of community affairs at Wichita State University, said no empirical studies back up claims that the permits deter crime.
“It’s hogwash,” said Birzer, who spent nearly two decades with the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office.
And there you have it: the same sort of informationally-challenged, emotionally-charged conclusions that gun control advocates use when they fly in the face of facts.