Editorials and Opinion Pieces

The American Spectator

"Politics" by Grover Norquist

Have Gun, will travel

GOP conealed gun laws are spreading like wildfire

EXTRA: view the map of Concealed carry states

November, 1998

Smart Democrats have always hated and feared the issue of gun control. Like the Sirens that used to lure Greek sailors onto fatal reefs, the gun control issue is the great liberal temptation. It is an easy way to appeal to the liberal contempt for rural America and hunters in particular. And serious leftists know that they cannot implement their most aggressive social engineering plans if too many Americans are armed. And at first glance it is a political winner - it polls well. But preference is not intensity. Preference gets you a "yes" answer on to a pollster. Intensity makes gun owners contribute, organize and drag their spouses and neighbors to the polls. A pro-gun control speech to one hundred citizens might get polite applause from the soccer moms who will have forgotten the speech by next week. Five gun owners in the audience will remember to hate that politician for life. Marginal congressional districts are won and lost by smaller swings than that five percent.

Bill Clinton is not a smart Democrat. He pushed through two gun control measures prior to the 1994 elections that cost the Democrats 26 of the net 5l House seats they lost on November 8. Rep. Anthony Beilenson (D-CA) who retired that year told the Hill newspaper that "We unnecessarily lost good Democratic members because of their votes on the Brady bill and the semi-automatic assault weapon ban....It was not worth it all. I don’t want any more of our fine colleagues to be sacrificed at the altar of gun control."

Bill Clinton still hasn’t learned. Despite the 1994 election, Clinton has latched onto the newest gun control wave: feigned interest in gun safety. The gun control advocates believed they had a winner in the ‘modest’ gun control measure of requiring all guns to be sold and kept with trigger locks. This was field tested in an initiative in Washington state on November 4, 1997. The gun control lobby brought their national resources to bear on one state hoping that a win would demonstrate the soft-underbelly of the National Rifle Association. The initiative created a strong organized backlash, including the computer resources contributed by the Microsoft gun club and the "reasonable" gun control measure was defeated in "moderate" Washington state by 71% to 29%.

In the Senate, a trigger lock law proposed by Senator Barbara Boxer was defeated 61 to 39% on July 21, 1998.

In the House, the strength of the second amendment forces can be seen in their vote on March 22, 1996 to repeal the Clinton assault weapon ban by a margin of 239 to 173.

Some liberals have argued that gun control is now a safer issue for Democrats because they have lost almost all their rural, Western and Southern congressional seats. This was the same reasoning that drove Clinton to declare war on tobacco. Democrats had once been the tobacco industry’s major supporters, but after a decade of losing Senate and House seats in North Carolina, Kentucky and other tobacco growing states they felt they had nothing to lose in declaring war on an entire region. This trend can also be seen in Al Gore’s war on western mining. Look at a map and there are only three Democrat House seats in the Rocky Mountain region and most of the Plain states.

The gun issue is becoming increasingly important and powerful as a result of a series of legislative victories at the state level that have enacted "shall issue" concealed carry laws. After the Civil War, many states passed laws against individuals carrying concealed weapons. These laws were not all anti-gun, but often flowed from the belief that honest men wore their guns out where folks could see them. Most states allowed permits be given to individuals by the local sheriff or police chief for individuals who had a need to carry concealed weapons. But over time these permits were given out in a discriminatory manner - in New York City - the rich and politically connected can get gun permits, shop keepers who fear robbers cannot. Some cities made it impossible to get permits.

In 1987, Florida passed a law that requires law enforcement officials to grant a permit to any law abiding citizen who passed a gun safety and competency test. No longer could police withhold concealed carry permits at their discretion. This legislation was hard fought with gun control advocates predicting wild west shoot-outs, road rage killings and an increase in crime. The ‘shall issue" law had the support of the Florida Sheriffs Association, the Florida Police Chiefs association and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Florida was important because it was a large state with substantial urban population and it attracted media attention. Before Florida’s "shall issue" law only Georgia, Washington state, Indiana, New Hampshire, Maine, North and South Dakota had "shall issue" right-to-carry laws. Alabama and Connecticut gave local authorities the power to issue permits at their discretion but gun owners felt they did so fairly. Vermont did not require a permit for its citizens to carry concealed weapons.

Two years later, in 1989, Oregon, Pennsylvania and West Virginia passed new "shall issue" laws. In 1990, Idaho and Mississippi enacted "shall issue" laws. Montana did so in 199l, Alaska, Arizona, Tennessee and Wyoming passed new " shall issue" laws in 1994. In 1995 Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas passed new "shall issue laws" and Virginia, Nevada and Utah moved from discretionary "may issue" laws to "shall issue." In 1996, Kentucky, Louisiana and South Carolina followed suit.

Today, there are 3l states with "shall issue" concealed carry laws which have 127 million Americans almost half the population.

And the momentum is growing. In 1997, Colorado’s Republican legislature passed a "shall issue" concealed carry law. It was vetoed by Governor Roy Roemer who also serves as the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. This November, Republican state treasurer Bill Owens is likely to win the governorship and will make Colorado the 32nd state with concealed carry. The Kansas legislature passed "shall issue" concealed carry through both houses of the legislature in 1997. Despite strong lobbying from Governor George W. Bush in Texas and Governor Frank Keating of Oklahoma, the Kansas liberal Republican governor reportedly caved to spousal pressure and vetoed the popular measure. In Missouri, the legislature has placed a referendum on the April 6, 1999 ballot where concealed carry is expected to pass. And in Nebraska, the votes are ready in the nation’s only unicameral legislature for passage, but a last minute filibuster kept the shall issue law from being considered. Nebraska should become a "shall issue" state early in 1999. The votes are ready in the Ohio legislature and await a new governor.

Concealed carry laws have greatly embarrassed the Sarah Brady gun control advocates by exposing their dire predictions as lies. (In Florida where more than 300,000 concealed-handgun licenses were issued between October 1, 1987 and December 31,1995, there were only five violent crimes involving permitted pistols and none resulted in a death.) Worse, for gun control believers is the research now proving that more guns in the hands of honest citizens reduces crime.

The most comprehensive study of "shall issue" laws was conducted by John R. Lott, Jr. and his associate David Mustard that has been summarized in Lott’s book, "More Guns, Less Crime." Lott’s study analyzed FBI crime statistics for all 3,054 counties from 1977 to 1992. (The largest study on gun laws before Lott’s was of only 170 cities for one year. One would think that if they liberals believed their own theories they would have cheerfully done this research years ago.)

Lott writes "Our most conservative estimates show that by adopting shall-issue laws, states reduced murders by 8.5%, rapes by 5%, aggravated assaults by 7% and robbery by 3%. If those states that did not permit concealed handguns in 1992 had permitted them back then, citizens would have been spared approximately 1570 murders, 4,177 rapes , 60,000 aggravated assaults and 12,000 robberies."

Lott’s study and his powerful book have demolished the gun control arguments among honest policy makers. Still the liberals have a near-religious faith in gun control as they had in arms control during the Cold War. Liberals could not blame communists or criminals for their crimes and chose to blame inanimate objects, missiles and guns.

In the political debates, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action ,Tanya Metaksa’s book "Safe not Sorry" may be as powerful as Lott’s careful study. Metaksa has compiled a strong collection of anecdotes of women defending themselves against criminals using guns. One of the most powerful stories in her book is that of Dr. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, a Texas woman who was with her parents in Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas on October 16, 199l when George Hennard crashed his truck through the window of the restaurant and began to shoot patrons. Because Texas had not yet passed its concealed carry law, Dr. Hupp’s pistol was in her car glove compartment and both her parents were killed. Dr. Hupp ran for the 54th Legislative district in Texas and was elected to the state legislature as a supporter of concealed carry laws. Sarah Brady cannot look Suzanna Hupp in the eye.

Concealed carry laws are changing American politics. There are 500,000 concealed carry permits in Florida, 500,000 in Pennsylvania, l00,000 in Virginia, 250,000 in Washington State, and 160,000 in Texas. Handgun Control, Inc. estimates that there are 2.9 million concealed carry permit holders in the United States. There are 600,000 law enforcement officers in America. If you get in trouble, it is more likely one of your fellow citizens with a concealed weapon will be nearby than a policeman.

And concealed carry laws are young. Over time more Americans will take the training to earn a concealed carry license. Criminals will have more to fear. Citizens will know that they are not at the mercy of criminals.

The Republican governing majority is made up of individuals who are independent and wish to be left alone by government. Citizens who take their own defense and self-protection into their own hands rather than depending on the police are a natural part of the Republican base. It used to be said that Bill Clinton’s worst nightmare was a self-employed American with a 40lK--because that person didn’t want anything from the government other than to be left alone. Today, Clinton’s worst nightmare is a self-employed American with a 40lK pension and a concealed carry permit. He doesn’t need the government for anything. And there are more such self-sufficient Americans each day.