Fear Mongers Activate Over Concealed Carry Permits

Harry G. Karadimos

In response to the Illinois State police mailing out thousands of concealed carry permits last month, Chicago Police Superintendent Gary McCarthy issued the usual anti-gun fear speech on ABC News.

“There are going to be confrontation situations. We’re hearing stories across the country about people getting shot over ‘thug music,’ right? Or somebody throwing popcorn in a movie theater,” he said. “These things are going to come, as sure as we’re standing here.”

The same argument could be used for the sale of cars in Illinois. There’s going to be drunk driving. People are going to speed and hit children crossing the road. No one will be safe!

Without digging up all of the usual boring statistics, we can use our common knowledge and ask a few simple questions to determine if trained people carrying guns are a safety risk to our families.

Wisconsin was the 49th state to enact concealed carry legislation back in July of 2011. Since then, how many mass shootings have happened in Wisconsin? How many people have been gunned down by wild-eyed concealed carry permit holders?
Hundreds of applicants have been denied permits, and several hundred permit holders have had their permits revoked; but for non-violent reasons.

You can Google search all you want, and you won’t find an epidemic of mass shootings in Wisconsin or in any other state by concealed carry permit holders. You will find mass shootings performed by psychos, but your chances of getting shot by a concealed carry permit holder in Wisconsin, or anywhere else, is like getting stampeded after a Green Bay Packers game. It’s unheard of.

Since 2004, there have been several mass shootings in Wisconsin, none of which were the fault of concealed carry permit holders in that state because the shootings happened before Wisconsin allowed concealed carry for civilians.

In 2004, Chai Vang was sentenced to life in prison for killing eight people while deer hunting. In 2007, Ambrosio Analco murdered six people, including his infant sons.

Although these acts of violence are reprehensible, and there were more, they all happened before concealed carry was enacted. Proving that if someone wishes to commit a crime with a weapon, permit or not, there is not much anyone can do about it unless someone there is armed to stop it.

Conceal and Carry Credit Bradhoc
Sign indicating no weapons allowed in the building.

In 2007, Jeanne Assam shot Matthew Murray after he opened fire in a Colorado New Life Church parking lot, killing 16-year-old Rachael Works and her 18-year-old sister, Stephanie Works. Their father David Works and several others survived their injuries.

Jeanne Assam worked as a police officer in another state and was currently working as a security guard at the church – armed with a pistol and a concealed carry permit. Her actions saved the lives of countless people. This proves that the only way to stop a retrograde with a gun is a good guy with a gun using it in accordance with the law.

Gang violence has nothing to do with concealed carry permits. You don’t need a concealed carry permit to do a drive-by and ditch the weapon afterward to avoid getting pinched for the crime.

The City of Chicago uses firearms as scapegoats to avoid the fundamental issues that plague the city. Chicago, like Los Angeles, has armies of street gangs that are their primary sources of violence.

The drug money in Chicago that fuels gangs violence circulates like a green tornado, while the Chicago police and media propagandists keep the focus on guns and not poverty – the root source of gang violence.

How many Chicago Police officers have to be stung by the FBI before it becomes clear as to who is pocketing some of the green tornado as well as the defense attorneys that represent Chicago area drug dealers?

We don’t live in a perfect world. Some permit holders will screw up and cause problems. The first person in Illinois history to have his permit revoked was 54-year-old William P. O’Connell, who had been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for pulling a gun out during an argument over rent money.

But since Gary McCarthy cast his shadow of doom over Carry and Concealed Weapon (CCW) on ABC noise (news) in March, earlier this month, a 53-year-old Austin man had a gun pointed at him by two men wearing hoodies. This concealed carry permit holder drew his weapon and shot at them. The two miscreants fled for their miserable lives sparing the concealed carry permit holder his life in the process.

Time will tell, but we are more likely to read about concealed carry permit holders defending themselves with a firearm rather than crimes committed by the same. If CCW was a bad idea, if it was such a disaster nationwide, then why haven’t other states repealed their CCW laws? Where is the data to show that CCW permit holders go on nationwide shooting sprees and are a threat to our families?