Michigan paper: ''Shall-issue gun law: Any objections now?''

January 13, 2005
The Jackson (MI) Citizen Patriot

It was a contentious debate that led lawmakers in 2001 to add Michigan to the roster of states with shall-carry gun laws. The debate is over, and a recent Citizen Patriot review of the past three years makes us wonder what all the fuss was about.

Many feared that if you let lots of people carry concealed guns, there would be shoot-outs, assassinations and general mayhem. It hasn't happened, though.

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Lawmakers passed the Michigan law in July 2001. In Jackson County, CCW permits were running about 10 per month before the law -- a total of 125 in 2000. The next year, when the law was passed, there were 742 issued in Jackson County. There were 771 in 2002, 421 in 2003 and 690 last year. Many were renewals. Statewide, 31,121 permits were issued in the year that ended June 30.

For all the potential problems inherent in thousands of newly issued gun permits, there have been virtually no big issues. No rampant vigilantism has been reported by police. There have been a few cases of Jackson County permit-holders brandishing weapons, but there are no reports of legal gun carriers firing a weapon at anyone.

On the plus side, the new law has stimulated a cottage industry in classes on firearm safety. About 40 percent of those taking the instruction are women.

How does Michigan's experience square with the national experience? More than 30 states have enacted laws similar to Michigan's. If there were problems in any of those states, it is certain that the gun-control groups that oppose shall-carry laws would be proclaiming the failure from one coast to the other.

That isn't the case, though. In fact, a recent study refutes the notion that gun-control laws of any kind reduce crime.

Last month the National Academy of Sciences issued a 328-page report on gun-control laws in America. The study was begun during the Clinton administration; most of the panelists favored gun control. And yet, after reviewing 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, 80 different gun-control measures and some of its own empirical work, the panel could not identify a single gun-control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

John R. Lott Jr., author of "More Guns, Less Crime and the Bias Against Guns," said in a Chicago Sun-Times column that if panelists were honest about their own evidence, it supported this conclusion: Gun control doesn't help reduce crime, while broader gun ownership does.

The body of evidence seems to support shall-carry laws like the one Michigan has enacted. The law certainly hasn't caused havoc in Michigan, and may be doing more to ensure homeland security than anyone yet realizes.

--The Jackson Citizen Patriot