Currently in Congress is legislation that has the Democrat Attorneys General from 16 states and the District of Columbia crying wolf. What has these top prosecutors all upset is HR 38/SB 446, legislation that would force states to recognize concealed carry weapon permits issued by other states.
The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 would allow people with concealed carry permits in one state to carry their weapon concealed in all other states. The bill already has over 200 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.
The 17 Attorneys General that are all in a tizzy are from New York, Massachusetts, California, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Virginia, Rhode Island, District of Columbia, Delaware, Iowa, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Connecticut, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Washington.
“THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!”
On October 22, 2017, this gang of 17 sent a letter to Congressional leaders in Washington, D.C., warning of dire consequences should national reciprocity become the law of the land. To believe them, one would conclude the world is coming to an end.
In their letter, the AGs warned:
“The result of the proposed legislation would be a proliferation of potentially dangerous or irresponsible non-residents with concealed weapons in the States, cities, and towns across America that have made local judgments that certain regulations on the carrying of such weapons are necessary to protect public safety.”
It would appear that these 17 individuals are of the opinion that the lawmakers from 34 other states, including those states’ Attorneys General, are incompetent and allow dangerous or irresponsible persons to wander their states with concealed carry permits, with little regard for public safety. They completely ignore the fact that licensees have undergone background checks and FBI statistics that indicate license holders are involved in less than 1 percent of crimes in the United States.
In fact, their letter asserts that allowing national reciprocity would inevitably
“lead to the death of police officers and civilians, the proliferation of gun traffickers, and acts of terrorism and other mass violence.”
“MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING”
Their reasoning is counter to the facts. A 2016 report issued by the Crime Prevention Research Center indicates that while the number of licenses has increased 215 percent since 2007, the murder rates fell 16% between 2007 and 2015.
In fact, the report concluded that permit holders are extremely law-abiding, even when compared to police officers. The report states that permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors and felonies at less than a sixth the rate for police officers and about 1/170th the rate for the general population.
In William Shakespeare’s heralded play Much Ado About Nothing, he implies that a great fuss is made of something which is insignificant.
What do you think of the fear-mongering claims made by these 17 Attorneys General? Are they simply being Chicken Little by inferring catastrophic conclusions? Is it much ado about nothing?
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