Texas' Concealed Handgun Law - 10 years later : Opinion

"As you know, I was very outspoken in my opposition to the passage of the Concealed Handgun Act. I did not feel that such legislation was in the public interest and presented a clear and present danger to law abiding citizens by placing more handguns on our streets," Holmes wrote. "Boy was I wrong. Our experience in Harris County, and indeed state-wide, has proven my initial fears absolutely groundless."

Well said. It's always a mistake to assume people are evil, mean and nasty. You (the reader) are not such a person, right? Why would the guy across the street be?

Good point. I think the stats in the article sum up an generalized answer to that question.

Well it has been proved that states with strong anti-guns laws have more crimes than those without. Just look at Washington, DC.

Refreshing!

This is preposturous.

Alan Rock told us that guns were the leading cause of shooting deaths and we'd never be safe if any Canadian had access to guns.

What this article proves is that Americans are either much more civilized than Canadians or we've been sold a bill of goods by people with some vested interest in keeping law abiding citizens unarmed.

I somehow think it's the latter.

Although it is nice to see how many Gun Registry advocates have posted here. I guess they're busy thinking up another blatent line of bull to justify their misguided logic.

I don't think there are much people who thinks the registry is a good thing. This is only some ideologists near someone who was shot (Polytechnique). Anyway, the '95 registry is for hunting rifle, not handgunds.

The handgun is the firearm of choice for responsible firearms owners like Police Officers.

Nice try guys, the concealed carry law in Texas had absolutely nothing to do with access to guns. The law meant that you no longer had to keep your handgun in the car, you could now carry it on your person. Since the access hasn't changed it makes sense that in a society overrun by guns, allowing law abiding citizens to carry them on their person will prevent them from getting shot.

Luckily for us, our limited access to guns already keeps us 15 times safer then our American counterparts.


http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/res-rec/comp-eng.htm

Sure Texas' concealed carry law has help reduced their homicide by handgun rates by 13%. But if we aimed for their current levels, it would be 1300% higher than our current rates. Sounds like a step backwards to me.

I think this is more a different culture. Laws doesn't do much, it has been proved several times. Your stats are for the whole US. They have very hard anti-gun laws in Washington, DC and still, it is a very dangerous city.

I agree law won't change much, access to firearms is the only important factor. The access to firearms remains relatively consistent in the US as there are no state to state border guards. The laws vary which allows some to carry and others not to carry but because the access is the same, those with concealed carry laws are in fact more protected. This is evident from the statistics in the originally posted article, just as the difference in access to handguns has protected us and is evident from the stats I have posted.

I particularly like handguns. instead of blasting the criminal with my shotgun, I can point the handgun at the criminal using 1 hand, while the other hand dials the police.

Now who objects to that, eh?

Criminals like them too, instead of wearing a trenchcoat in august to conceal their longrifle, and looking really suspicious, they can pack them in their bermuda shorts, blow someones head off and then head to the beach, Florida style.

I found this enlightening;



A US state is only a short distance behind Iraq for gun deaths?!?

So much for the theory that more guns makes you more safe...