Very good news

USA Today reports on its front page today that "Gun owners are packing heat in record numbers" by setting records for concealed carry permit applications in a number of states such as Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Florida and Utah. Permits from the last two places are particularly popular because many other states allow non-resident visitors to lawfully carry firearms in public using them (we hold both).

We think it's absolutely wonderful that ever-greater numbers of law-abiding citizens are exercising their Second Amendment rights in public. In fact, as far as we're concerned, the more the merrier, as the Messiah and current Congress will certainly have less and less of an appetite to attempt to impose further restrictions on the peasantry as the number of lawful gun-owners rises higher and higher.

In fact, our "Dear Leaders" should take note of the following indisputable facts:

1. Law-abiding permit holders have a rate of committing serious crimes that is vanishingly small compared to the general population (on the order of their being thousands of times less likely to break any law, let alone commit a violent offense);

2. Criminals who use guns to commit felonies don't bother to buy or carry them legally, and pretty much ignore all laws as a matter of course;

3. Not one of the 36 or so states with a "shall-issue" (as opposed to a "may-issue" system, in which local law enforcement has broad [and often-abused] discretion to hand out permits) has ever repealed their liberalized carry law once it was enacted;

4. Violent crime rates always go down when states enact "shall-issue" carry laws;

5. Lastly (and probably most importantly) to the politicians currently in power, this large number of new permit holders will probably be extremely motivated to vote for pro-gun candidates in the next election should it become a campaign issue. The lawmakers defy them at their political peril.

It's probably safe to say that only the last point will resonate with the legislators. No problem. If fear for their jobs is the factor that keeps them from further restricting our liberties, that's perfectly OK with us.