Losing on all fronts, Brady left trying to spin numbers of CHLs issued

by Chad D. Baus

Having lost legislative battles against concealed carry reform in Ohio and across the country, having seen the unsuccessful Clinton Gun Ban go down in flames, having watched another anti-gun Presidential candidate get beat on the gun issue, and having witnessed crime rates fall nationwide even as more and more Americans carry firearms for self-defense, the Brady Campaign (formerly Handgun Control Inc.) has been reduced to trying to spin recent news stories about the numbers of CHL applicants in states that have recently passed laws.

On its website, a recent Brady Bunch headline screams "Ohioans Reject Concealed Handguns – No Interest in NRA’s CCW Law". The story claims that "very few people actually want to walk around with a hidden handgun" in Ohio, and that "the same lower-than-expected numbers on gun license applications have come out of Michigan, Minnesota and Missouri, each of which has approved new concealed carry laws since 2001." In what is purported to be a statement proving their conclusions, the story quotes Bob Corwell, Executive Director of the Buckeye State Sheriffs Association (BSSA), as saying applications are "down 30 percent [from projections]" in Ohio.

What these gun ban extremists don't tell their readers is WHY Cornwell says applications are less than some expected, nor do they tell the truth about what the Ohio Legislative Service Commission's actual estimates about how many CHLs would be issued in the first year actually were.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

The source for the Brady story, a Chicago Tribune report which is being picked up across the country, wasn't even linked to on the Brady website. There is a reason:

Much of the information in the article points to the fact that the REAL reason for any underperformance with the laws in these recently-reformed CCW states results directly from poison pill provisions which the gun ban extremists endorsed.

[BSSA Exec. Dir.] Cornwell said the lower numbers in Ohio are due in large part to some of the restrictions attached to the law, covering public places and a requirement that guns in cars must be in clear view.

"I think the appetite is there. But because of restrictions, many think it's just not worth the hassle to have the license."

In Missouri, [Norm Nielsen, chief deputy sheriff in Stone County] does not think the lower demand for gun ownership reflects a slackening appetite to carry a gun. Some people don't apply because of the cost of the permit and training, about $250, he said.

Before passage of laws in Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio, legislators were warned that research indicated as the law was made more restrictive, fewer would participate, and less of a downward effect would be made on crime. Despite these warnings, many concessions were made to extremists whose eventual goal is to ban all civilian ownership of firearms. And now those same extremists hope to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by claiming that there is "no interest" in recently-passed CCW laws.

There is another reason which provides insight as to why the numbers may be skewed somewhat:

In Missouri, the two largest cities in the state (St. Louis and Kansas City), aren't issuing permits, violation of the law.

In Ohio, OFCC has documented how sheriffs in some of our most populous counties are restricting applications, even to the point of necessitating legal action to force them to comply with the law.

Even so, as one OFCC supporter points out, applications are still on target to meet what was probably the most unbiased prediction to have been issued by the state, from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission (LSC).

Before passage of Ohio House Bill 12, the LSC projected that 71,000 citizens would obtain licenses in the first year. In the first six months, 38,434 Ohioans have obtained concealed handgun licenses. Despite a summer slow-down (which had been projected by OFCC), applications must only meet 60% of the first quarter pace over the next six months for Ohio to meet the LSC's projections for the first year.

There is no doubt that lifting some of the egregious, unsafe, and unecessary restrictions in Ohio's concealed carry law would increase the rate of applications. But the Brady Bunch's claim that there is "no interest" in Ohio's concealed carry law has fallen as flat as their lobbying efforts in recent years.

The REAL story in Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri and Michigan is that Brady's predictions of mass mayhem with concealed carry laws has not come to pass. Again, from the story Brady cherry-picked quotes from, but refused to link to:

Concealed carry laws have NOT "resulted in Dodge City-type mayhem that the laws' opponents forecast."

What they HAVE done is provide individual, law-abiding citizens the most effective method of exercising their human right of self-defense. There is no spin that can cover over the lives saved every day in this nation thanks to concealed carry laws.