Posted on 06/30/2003 8:15:34 AM PDT by jdege
Nolan Zavoral, Star Tribune
Published June 30, 2003
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." [...]
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.
[...]
"It's been shown in FBI crime statistics that crime goes down in states with conceal-and-carry laws," [Tim Grant] 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?"
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
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A veritable tsunami of protest.
They "don't see why" citizens should be armed? Well, here's one very good one that even their limited intelligence can grasp:
"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?"
The Liberal mindset in nutshell, ladies & gentlemen! Free passes for the criminals while the law-abiding are made subjects.
-Jay
Only in the liberal world are "facts" to be "assumed".
Only in the liberal world is it determined that crime goes up with the number of gun permits issued.
is any of that worth a single death?
Yes. In fact it's worth the deaths of dozens of criminals who otherwise would destroy the lives of responsible citizens.
I propose these criminal worshipping protestors wear some kind of symbol on their clothing at all times identifying themselves as gun opponents. Then, if a legally armed citizen happens upon them as a criminal gives them a dose of reality, the armed citizen, recognizing the victim as a member of the anti-gun crowd, can simply walk on by safe in the knowledge the crime victim would be offended should they intervene.
Yup. That sign sums up the intellectual level of the gun-control-freaks very nicely. They can phrase it in $64 words, and methodology-crippled "studies", but that's what their arguement amounts to. Nothing more.
Molly Ivins stated a further law should be passed that required license holders to wear multicolored propeller beanies so we would know when they were coming.
I was so stunned with Ivins' chutzpah to insult her fellow citizens like that I actually wanted to reach in that TV screen and slap her down ten flights of stairs.
Parse this just a bit:
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. Using this nut's terminology, that's an increase of 7.5 times. (this little factoid comes in handy in the next paragraph
"You can't do a cost analysis on something like this," Well, HE certainly can't, as he is about to demonstrate....
he said. "You should assume that with this law, gun injuries and deaths increase. Even if you say you don't have 15 times He's gotta be referring to the increase in the numbers of permits, but gets the math wrong.
[the crime] because of the permits, is any of that worth a single death?" Of course, this character can't get his tiny mind around the idea that the law will most likely save lives -- at least innocent lives. The bad guys will have a roughter time of it, though.
And this from a chemistry teacher. You'd think he'd at least be able to do simple arithmatic.
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