This tid-bit courtesy of Rick Schwartz  thelemur@jorsm.com

In the Chicago Trib, major newspaper...

Don't let the first few paragraphs fool you -- the author uses the ol' bait
and switch tactic to suck the gun-grabbers in and then whacks them with the
truth.

This is a major columnist, writing in perhaps the second most gun-hating
city in the nation. I encourage you to send him a nice email -- he'll need
it after this runs.
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For the full article please go to http://chicagotribune.com
 excerpts below...
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Michigan's threat from concealed weapons

June 28, 2001

If you plan a trip to Michigan, you may want to check your life insurance
policy, update your will and don your body armor. Come Sunday, unless the
state supreme court intervenes, it will start letting residents get permits
to carry concealed weapons. Gun-control advocates are braced for the worst.

"I can guarantee you that I've honked my last horn at an intersection in
Michigan," former prosecutor L. Brooks Patterson told the Tribune's Tim
Jones. A disgusted Oakland County official threatened to put up billboards
saying "Welcome to Dodge City." Police groups say their members will be in
jeopardy from "more guns in more and more locations."

Of course Michigan is already a risky place to honk your horn. Its homicide
rate has long been well above the national average. Detroit currently places
third in the ongoing competition to be the murder capital of the United
States. And things can only get much worse if lots of Michiganders take to
packing heat, right?

The assumption is that if we let ordinary folks arm themselves, they'll soon
be blasting away over every traffic altercation or Little League umpiring
dispute. Take an ordinary confrontation, add gunpowder, and bad things are
bound to happen.

But are they? It's not as though this is a radical experiment that has never
been tried before. In fact, some 33 states already have laws making it
possible for most citizens to carry a concealed firearm. If allowing this
practice leads to anarchy, we would probably have noticed it by now. In
fact, serious misconduct by concealed-weapon permit holders is comparatively
rare.

In Texas, which has 215,582 licensees, only 178 people have lost their
permits due to felony convictions since 1996. Only three have gone to jail
for murder or attempted murder. Florida, one of the first states to embark
on this experiment, issued more than 72,000 licenses in the past year, while
revoking only 241.

Indiana, which has about 350,000 permit holders, canceled 921 last year, or
about one-fourth of 1 percent of the total. Maj. Karen Butts, commander of
the records division of the state police, says, "I can't think of any that
were revoked for a firearms homicide." Among Utah's 40,000 licensees, only
five have lost their privileges because of a conviction for murder or
attempted murder.

As for Michigan cops who think their jobs will be more dangerous, Yale law
school scholar John Lott Jr. offers reassuring news: "There has never been a
case where a person with a permitted concealed handgun has killed a police
officer."

The Violence Policy Center, an anti-gun group, says Texas effectively
furnishes permit holders a "license to kill, and kidnap, and rape, and drive
drunk"--noting that hundreds of them have been arrested on various charges.
But this proves only that the gun owners in question are endowed with the
usual human imperfections. In any group of 215,000 people, you can expect
some to run afoul of the law once in a while.

But gun permits don't increase the risk. Notes H. Sterling Burnett, a
researcher at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative think
tank based in Dallas, "Licensees were 5.7 times less likely to be arrested
for violent offenses than the general public."

The experience supports the claim of gun-rights advocates that people who
get permits tend to be peaceable sorts. It's not hard to guess why. In the
first place, background checks are required, and permits are denied to those
with felony convictions (or some types of misdemeanor convictions) and those
with a history of serious mental illness. In the second, applicants have to
undergo extensive training in safe firearms use.

Rules like those tend to screen out the violent, the lawless and the
deranged. Anyone with strong criminal inclinations, after all, doesn't need
a permit for a concealed weapon. A lot of crooks make a habit of carrying a
piece without asking permission.

Those thugs who live in Michigan aren't any more likely to pack heat if the
state issues concealed-weapon licenses. The permits will generally go to
upstanding citizens, who aren't likely to resort to deadly force when
someone cuts in line at the grocery store. People who obey the law before
they are allowed to carry a gun usually obey the law after they are allowed
to carry a gun. They aren't out to hurt anyone--merely to prevent anyone
from hurting them or their loved ones.

So the new law may pose a threat to those engaged in a life of crime. But
other residents of Michigan have no reason to worry. If they're looking for
Dodge City, they'll have to go to Kansas.

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E-mail: Steve Chapman <schapman@tribune.com>