🚀 go-pugleaf

micron@5a.com (Mike Ronn) writes:
>Basically, Florida has been doing CCW for 4 years (that suprised 
>me, because I thought that it was only one year).

    The recent change in Florida's laws was in 1986 or 1987, and I believe
    it involved relaxing the requirements for getting a license, which had
    already been available but harder to get.

>Also, Floridas 
>violent crime rate has been on a serious decline (23%), the national average 
>has gone up 13%. 

    From the '50's, Florida's Murder rate had tracked with the rest of the
    US's, albeit slightly and consistently higher. With the publicity of
    the new CCW license requirements and the rush to get one, not only did
    the murder rate start dropping but it changed from tracking with the
    rest of the country. It has conssitently fallen every year since.

>As far as law enforcement goes, departments say one thing on television for 
>PR, but the officer in the street usually says something different.  I would 
>take the officer in the streets point of view.  Ones I have spoken with 
>actually encourage rape victems to carry weapns on the grounds that if an 
>officer can't be there, you have to do something.

    I went through the Lewisville Citizen's Police Academy, and my
    experience with patrol and traffic officers, as well as the more
    (I hate to use the term, but) "political" officers, is identical.
    The higher ups are opposed, the people who actually have a higher 
    likelyhood of facing armed citizens favor carry permits. Lewisville's
    police chief told me during last session's carry bill debates that he
    opposed citizen carry because there was no way they could even be sure
    his cops wouldn't crack. He opposed the carry bill because psychological
    screening for cops was imperfect...

    The only "beat" cop I've ever talked to who opposed citizen carry also
    opposed citizens studying the martial arts. He was quite the 
    stereotypical rookie bully cop, all the way down to the dark aviator
    sunglasses. Might be some kind of relationship there...


-- 
    Kevin Langston   
    langston@frontier.lonestar.org

    "Envy is a powerful tool in the hand of a tyrant."