FL headline - Senior security: Packing pistols

October 7, 2004
Jacksonville (FL) Times-Union

More than 130,000 Floridians over age 50 are carrying guns and many say for protection, peace of mind.

By Tia Mitchell

It was the fear of becoming a target that made Vicki Keefer decide to buy a handgun 12 years ago.

Now, at 64, she seldom leaves her Southside Jacksonville home without a 9mm semiautomatic tucked inside her purse.

"If somebody tries to get into my car, come into my home or harm me in some way, at least I can even up the playing field," Keefer said. "They have just picked the wrong granny, that's all."

She is among the more than 130,000 Florida residents over age 50 who have a concealed weapons license and is part of an age group that has steadily accounted for about 38 percent of the state's issued permits.

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Although a 2001 gun policy survey by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found gun ownership remained highest among the middle-age groups, it also found they were keeping their weapons into their golden years.

Many say the elderly are carrying guns for the same reason: security.

Critics counter the fears about elderly crime are being exaggerated.

Michael Hallett, chairman of the University of North Florida department of sociology and criminal justice, said statistics show elderly Americans are the least likely age group to experience crime.

Only 3.4 percent of seniors were victims of violent crime in 2002, down from 9.1 percent in 1973, according to U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics.

"It's just completely inaccurate to believe that there is a crime wave against the elderly," Hallett said.

"The best thing they can do is take other kinds of protective actions, such as traveling with a partner and not going into unfamiliar places," he said.

Not so, said Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck. He encourages people of all ages to carry a weapon as self-defense.

Kleck is co-author of a controversial 1993 study that determined Americans use their privately owned firearms about 2.5 million times every year to defend themselves during confrontations with criminals, a count much higher than more widely accepted surveys.

If a senior was approached by a criminal, having a gun could prevent the person from losing property or being injured, Kleck said.

"The research I've just completed indicates that resistance across the board is a good idea," he said. "I don't know where the idea came from that it's safer if you do not resist."

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Commentary:
It is amazing to see gun ban extremists point to the successful result of arming more seniors (a drastic drop in attacks) as a reason why seniors should not arm themselves.

We look forward to seeing Gary Kleck's new study proving that resistance across the board is a good idea. The last such study we are aware of, published in the Southwick, Journal of Criminal Justice in the year 2000, found that for all rapes, woman who resisted with a gun were 2.5 times more likely to escape without injury than those who did not resist, and 4 times more likely to escape uninjured than those who resisted with any means other than a gun.

So why is the anti-gunners' answer to violence is to make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens like these seniors to obtain firearms, or the right to bear them for self-defense?