For the most part concealed weapons laws have tended to decrease violent crime in the states where such laws have been adopted. That did not stop gun control opponents from swearing up and down last year that Michigan’s concealed carry law would lead to Wild West-style shootouts in Michigan cities. On the one year anniversary of the law’s passage, thousands more people now carry concealed weapons and, of course, there has been no increase at all in gun crimes.
According to the Detroit News, over the last 8 1/2 months, the number of concealed weapons permits have increased 39 percent, up from 58,280 before the law to 81,033 today. Yet, as Wayne County Sheriff Robert Ficano conceded to the News, there has been no crime wave as predicted by the law’s opponents,
That’s really the surprise. There are no altercations or incidents I’ve seen that are at all attributable to the law change. We thought there might be some.
Of course that would not have been a surprise at all had Ficano or others simply looked at what happened with other states that passed such laws.
The law has also gained overwhelming support from Michigan residents, with polls showing 58 percent of people in the state in support of the law. Gun control activists have given up trying to repeal the law, at least for the moment, acknowledging they have been unable to raise the money necessary to mount a campaign against the bill that would likely fail anyway.
Source:
Gun permits surge, but not violence. John Bebow and George Hunter, The Detroit News, March 21, 2002.