Can the Anti-Gun Doomsayers Avoid Admitting CCWs Work?
August 1, 2006

by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

You bet they will. The gang at the Brady Center to Prevent Handgun Violence has probably been hiding under their desks since July 11. And the sophomoric jokesters at the Freedom States Alliance’s gunguys.com are probably stumbling over their Twister game.

Like all of the anti-gun nuts who have been predicting mayhem and bloodshed every time a shall issue gun law has been proposed, they have been caught flatfooted by some of the news headlines. It isn’t just concealed pistol licenses that give the anti-gunners the hives; a proposal to restore the “Castle Doctrine” in American jurisprudence will also drive them into hysterics.

The antis are quick to loudly predict that every fender bender and shopping cart bump will turn into a devastating and mindless massacre because decent, law-abiding citizens have access to the means for self-defense. But when the statistics prove them wrong, the anti-gunners hide, change the subject and do anything they can to avoid admitting that they are wrong.

Recent headlines have again proved them wrong, but they won’t admit it.

Here’s one of those headlines:

“Bush: Florida crime rate down to lowest level since 1971.”

That was the banner above a July 11 Associated Press (AP) report that Florida’s crime rate dropped for the 14th straight year in 2005 to its lowest mark since 1971, because of tougher laws, increased financial support from the legislature and law-abiding citizens with guns. Their quote source: Gov. Jeb Bush.

“This report shows that staying tough on crime works,” said Bush. “Law-abiding citizens that have guns for protection actually probably are part of the reason we have a lower crime rate.”

The crime rate, compiled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), decreased 3.7% from 4,855 crimes per 100,000 people in 2004 to 4,677 crimes per 100,000 people last year. The total included 881 murders, 12,230 rapes and 75,204 vehicle thefts.

In 2005, the state’s law enforcement agencies reported 838,063 crimes compared to 850,490 in 2004, a 1.5% decrease.

Last year Bush signed a bill that allows people who feel threatened on the street, in a bar, at a ball game—or just about anywhere—to “meet force with force” to defend themselves without fear of being prosecuted, AP noted.

“You send a real powerful signal when you know the citizen has a good potential of being armed and doesn’t have to back off anymore,” said John Birch, president of the Illinois-based Concealed Carry Inc., was quoted by the AP writer.

Opponents, however, have said the idea would legalize shootouts in the streets.

Not surprising, AP reported that a telephone message left for comment after hours with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, DC, was not immediately returned.

Bush said he was concerned about the number of murders in the Jacksonville and Orlando areas, where there have already been 120 homicides this year.

FDLE chief Jerry Bailey said he has assigned seven agents to help Jacksonville officials with the troubling increase in murders and is working with law enforcement in central Florida on forming a task force.

The number of violent crimes in 2005 increased statewide by 1.7% although the rate dropped 0.6% and nonviolent crime decreased by 4.2%. Violent crimes are murder, forcible sex offenses, robbery and aggravated assault.

Reports of domestic violence were up slightly and those incidents accounted for more than a fourth of the reported violent crimes and one-fifth of all murders, according to FDLE.

“The people that commit the majority of the crimes are habitual offenders,” Bush said. “They’re the ones that commit a crime after crime after crime.”

For the second straight year, authorities made more than 1 million arrests. The 1,056,121 arrests in 2005 represented a 2.6% increase.

Drug arrests continued to increase, going from 150,334 to 160,649. Last year they increased nearly 10%.

There were also other news stories that had the anti-gunners gulping antacids.

The Florida Times Union reported on July 10 that the state’s “Deadly-force law has an effect, but Florida hasn’t become the Wild West.”

According to The Times Union “state attorneys say it makes filing charges more difficult for prosecutors.”

However, the newspaper led off its report with a link to an actual case.

“Last year, Florida’s new ‘deadly force’ law was simply an interesting newspaper story to Doug Freeman,” The Times Union story began.

This year, it may have saved him from prison.

Freeman, owner of Marvin’s Electronics in Jacksonville, has claimed self-defense in shooting 26-year-old Vincent Hudson five times in his store on the night of May 31. Their stories differ on the nature of the confrontation—it was either an attempted robbery or a request for money—but Hudson survived and Freeman won’t face charges.

The murky details contain one clear point: Florida’s legal landscape has changed since Oct. 1, when a law took effect that broadens the legal principle of self-defense.

“I knew about the law, but it’s not something you think about on a moment’s notice,” Freeman said. “It’s a good law. It should have been enacted years ago. There has to be a mechanism in place to safeguard average citizens against something like this.”

Referring to the anti-gun opposition to the law, The Times Union noted “predictions flew across Florida last summer that the deadly force law would turn the state into a Wild West environment where shootings flared during everyday confrontations. With the law on the books for nine months, prosecutors and defense attorneys say the changes have actually been more subtle.

“What’s happened, most say, is that more homicides are not being prosecuted or that they result in reduced charges.

“ ‘We expected the larger impact to be in trials, with people jumping into court because of shootings and lots of shouting from the rooftops. That’s not happening,’ said Jacksonville lawyer Russell Smith, president-elect of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.”

The paper said that in Duval County, where this year’s homicide epidemic has heightened attention on the 2005 law, State Attorney Harry Shorstein largely agrees.
The law apparently can’t be blamed for the homicide binge, Shorstein said, because it has influenced only a handful of homicide or attempted homicide cases.

State Attorney John Tanner, whose office covers Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns and Volusia counties, said he can’t blame the deadly-force law for any increase in homicides in his jurisdiction.

“And I would notice it because I personally review all homicides in the 7th Circuit—even vehicular,” Tanner said.

Now compare those headlines out of Florida with the ones coming from Washington, DC, at about the same time. In Washington, where the law-abiding have been prevented from legally having access to firearms for defense of home or person for over 30 years, violent, random crime has become so prevalent that the police commissioner has declared a “crime emergency.” Whatever that is!
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