Blocking CCW in national parks helps anti-gunners suppress the truth

Seattle Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 20 March, 2009 | Dave Workman

[marktwain]

Gun prohibitionists are crowing that a federal judge on March 19 blocked a rule change allowing concealed carry in national parks.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Bill Clinton appointee, issued a preliminary injunction that the National Rifle Association says it will quickly appeal.

BULLETIN: The NRA on Friday filed an appeal in this case.

An apparently giddy Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, was quoted by the Associated Press noting, “We’re happy that this headlong rush to push more guns into more places has been slowed.”

Darned right he’s happy, but this has nothing to do with public safety or even the lengthy process under which the rule was adopted late last year. Contrary to what the Brady camp and its allies who sued to stop this rule are claiming, this change was not “sudden” or a “last minute bone” thrown to the evil “gun lobby.” This process took a couple of years and went through an extended public comment period last year, and the gun ban lobby knows it. Public comments were being taken as far back as last spring, and everyone had a chance to weigh in, and was even extended an additional 30 days at the request of opponents like Kurt Repanshek.

But, as it has now occurred to 65 Democrat members of the House of Representatives, the gun ban lobby is pretty good at stretching a falsehood (truth has nothing to do with it!). Read this letter in pdf form, courtesy the National Rifle Association.

'The gun control community has intentionally misled many Americans...'

The truth that Helmke and other gun prohibitionists masquerading as supporters of “sensible” gun ownership want suppressed is that concealed carry works. It does not result in mythical Wild West gun battles at every fender-bender, and it also has resulted in lower crime rates.

In Illinois, where concealed carry is being debated by state lawmakers – the state is one of two remaining that do not have a concealed carry statute – county sheriffs support the idea. St. Clair County Sheriff Mearl Justus thinks concealed carry will reduce crime, and he noted that such statutes already work in 48 other states.

The incidence of violent crime in Michigan in the six years since the law went into effect has been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, also has declined.

The Akron, Ohio Beacon-Journal reported in 2005 that concealed carry in the Buckeye State was working, and that all the blood-and-gore predictions from anti-gunners (the same thing they predicted in every other state) had not materialized.

When concealed carry was adopted in Nebraska, a sheriff there told WOWT News in Omaha that he anticipated no trouble, as had, of course, been predicted by concealed carry opponents.

In 2007, after ten years of concealed carry in Oklahoma – certainly long enough to establish a pattern of violence if there were going to be such a pattern – the Tulsa World reported that “officials say gun-carrying citizens (are) responsible, (and are) deterring crime” in the sub-head of its story.

Capping it off, the Detroit Free Press in January 2008 also noted that six years of experience in Michigan with a reformed concealed carry statute had not produced the “dire predictions about increased violence and bloodshed” that were pandered by the Brady Campaign, its allies in the numerically-challenged Million Mom March” and other anti-gun groups.

While reporter Dawson Bell’s story is no longer available on the Free Press website, it was saved in a couple of places, including the Michigan State University Libraries website.

So of course Helmke is happy, but perhaps only temporarily. Anti-gunners want to prevent the public from realizing that concealed carry does not bring out the worst in people, except in the imagination of the Brady Campaign. If concealed carry works in 48 states, and lawmen in Illinois are not opposed, what’s Helmke’s problem?

[marktwain]

The anti-gun and freedom types lie because the truth does not help their cause.

[Travis McGee]

The anti-liberty forces just want to keep our parks safe for serial killers, kidnappers and rapists, like this dirtbag who murdered Meredith Emerson in Georgia.

I wonder how it makes them feel, knowing they are the best friends and allies of rapists and killers?

This judge just got a big "thumbs up" from the rapists and killers of the USA.

[Pablo64]

"If concealed carry works in 48 states, and lawmen in Illinois are not opposed, what’s Helmke’s problem?"

His problem is freedom and truth. He is against the first and doesn't know the last.

[bitterohiogunclinger]

“The anti-gun and freedom types lie because the truth does not help their cause.”
The anti-gun crowd, like most liberal “causes”, operates from emotion rather than reason. Truth, in the eyes of a liberal, is whatever set of “facts” they can concoct to support their beliefs. If you've ever tried to debate a liberal then you know that “facts” are whatever they make up on the spur of a moment, and their steadfast belief in the premise that if they say it loud enough and often enough it becomes “truth”.
Much like they don't mind giving up your money to support a worthy (in their addled minds) cause, they sure don't hesitate to give up your freedoms to make them feel a little safer. Reality is an abstract concept to a liberal.

[PubliusMM]

Agreed. Truth does nothing to advance their cause. Consequently, they are free to fabricate their lies from whole cloth, and continue their fear mongering without having to provide supporting data of any sort. And, the anointed one will stand by, with that arrogant smirk on his mug, and wait until the last vestiges of personal freedom are excised from American society, to be replaced with his self-aggrandizing socialism.

It’s time to take back the country.

[Charlespg]

I keep hoping somebody will someday file a massive civil suit against these brady idiots

[Beagle8U]

Here are some hard data facts, from the FBI no less, about how Michigan’s CCW law cut the crime rate, A LOT!

“The FBI has just released it’s 2002 Uniform Crime Report, which reveals stunning facts about the success of Michigan’s concealed carry law: amidst a slight upward trend in crime nationwide, Michigan’s crime rate has dropped yet again: down to 3874.1, a 10.5% reduction in just three years. In that same time, Ohio’s crime rate has increased 5%.

Ohio’s violent crime rate is increasing at an even faster pace than the overall crime trend - up 4.24% in 2002. Michigan’s violent crime rate, on the other hand, dropped another 2.63%. Ohio’s murder rate was up a whopping 21.24% last year, while Michigan’s experienced a less than one percent change. Ohio’s rape rate (already one of the highest in the nation) rose another 13.31% last year, while Michigan’s dropped 1.34%. Robberies in Ohio surged 6.5% in 2002, while they dropped a whopping 8.49% across the northern border. Car thefts, which include carjackings, increased 2.83% in Ohio last year, while falling 7.42% in Michigan.”

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=79583

[doodad]

All this will do is make criminals of otherwise law abiding people who will not dimish their safety because of an arbitraty boundary.

[vetvetdoug]

I am sure the drug smugglers and farmers will make sure they follow the Diverse Obama’s directive that will disarm the law abiding public.

[crowkiller]

I live within the area of Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas. A small part of the town is a national park. The town surrounds the park on all sides. Weekly I drive from US 70 to State 7. This route take me through the park, a total of one mile. I carry a weapon at all times. When the law was in place I was required to drive fifteen miles out of my way to get to State 7. When the law allowing carry I saved thirty miles a week making the round trip.

[SuperLuminal]

bttt