The Democrats Think I'm Evil Incarnate
I just watched a political commercial by the Democrats on CNN. It said George Bush signed a law making concealed carry legal in Texas. According to the commercial, I’m evil incarnate and Governor George Bush has enabled me. I’m one of those satanic people that have a concealed handgun license. I’m one of over 200,000 people in Texas that have a hidden handgun on them while standing next to you in the grocery check out line. That commercial implied that when I get home I’m likely to lose it and shoot my wife and kids because my bagel isn’t toasted right and I’m slighted on the cream cheese. Garbage! That commercial lumps me in with gang bangers, dope dealers, and all sorts of criminal slime. The Democrats just want more gun control. I really resent that. In order to get my concealed handgun license I had to pass an FBI and state fingerprint background check that is more rigorous than most Texas law enforcement agencies require. (Minor transgressions can’t be waived for us "civilians".) I had to pass a live fire test that is more stringent than most law enforcement agencies' annual pistol qualification. I also had to attend a 12-hour class on the legal ramifications of carrying a gun and the use of deadly force. This doesn't mean a thing to the Democrats. I own a gun. I carry a gun. I’m evil. Unlike Governor Bush, the Democrats don’t trust citizens with guns. Well, let me cite a few facts that Al Gore and the Democrats don’t want you to know. FBI statistics show that you are 2.5 times more likely to avoid injury or death when using a gun for self-defense. Using a gun is the best method to resist criminal attack including cooperating with the criminal. No gun control bill has lowered the criminal use of guns. Even the much touted Brady Bill has failed to deter crime. States with and without Brady type laws were compared. There was no difference in crime rates after the Brady law was passed. At most, some senior citizens have been prevented from using a gun for suicide. Even with that, the overall rate of suicide hasn’t been effected. There are more than 2.5 million uses of a gun for self-defense each year. This was established by the National Self-defense Survey. For those that don’t like the NSDS numbers, more than 12 other national surveys have been conducted with figures ranging from 1.5 to 3.5 million defensive gun uses per year. Criminologists have come to accept the 2.5 million DGU figure as accurate. Arrest rates of people like me are magnitudes lower than the general population. For that matter, they are lower than the arrest rates of police officers in major cites such as Los Angeles and Washington DC. People with concealed carry licenses are much more law abiding than the general population. Police shoot the wrong person about 11 times more often than civilian gun owners. (There are good reasons, but that doesn’t change the numbers…) On top of that, Texans with CHL’s like me haven’t shot the wrong person yet. The Center for Disease Control stated gun deaths for children dropped 10% for 1998 compared to 1997. CDC further stated there were more than 3800 children killed by guns in 1998. I found that the CDC is slanting their statements after reading the actual report. In the CDC report, children are considered to be everyone below the age of 20. When you look at the statistical tables in the report you find that over 3100 of the 3800 gun deaths occur from ages 14 to 19. Children? Oh, give me a break. Or better yet, some honest analysis. Child injury accidents with guns are insignificant when compared with most other legally owned objects. This includes cars, bathtubs, bicycles, skateboards, and water buckets. If you are worried because I own and carry a gun, your fears are illogical and irrational. Those that push gun control are either trying to scare you for political gain or are pathologically afraid of armed citizens. The Democrats’ commercial assumes that the Texas concealed carry law is bad. By signing the Texas Concealed Handgun License Law, Governor Bush committed a heinous act. The Democrats would have you believe Governor Bush was wrong in signing the CHL law. They are wrong. When Texas passed the Concealed Handgun License law about 3 ½ years ago, there were quite a few state and local politicians predicting all sorts of problems. People were going to have shoot-outs when they had fender benders. Neighbors were going to have feuds that rivaled those hillbillies from Arkansas (who also have concealed handgun licenses). It was really going to be vicious. Well, all those predictions were wrong. The district attorney for Harris County (this is the greater Houston area with a population over 4 million) vigorously opposed the CHL law. About a year after the law passed he apologized to the licensees and said that none of his fears were realized. In Dallas, Glen White, president of the Police Officers Association said, "I lobbied against the law in 1993 and 1995 because I thought it would lead to wholesale armed conflict. That hasn't happened. All the horror stories I thought would come to pass didn't happen. No bogeyman. I think it has worked out well, and that says good things about the citizens who have permits. I am a convert". These knowledgeable men state flatly that people like me are not a problem in Texas. Think about it. Think about this. All of the arguments presented against gun ownership and carrying a gun assume that you are a threat. They imply implicitly or explicitly that you are a danger to yourself, your loved ones, and society simply by owning a gun. You cannot be trusted with a gun. They think that you and every one of the 80,000,000 gun owners in the United States are about to go insane and run though their houses shooting their spouses and children; run though the streets shooting everyone in sight; and go to work and kill all of their coworkers. The Democrats want to "gun control" you! As I said at the beginning, to Democrats I’m evil incarnate. They think you are, too. Texas Handgunner |