Gun Control & RKBA
Related: About this forumFLORIDA expected to issue one millionth CCW week.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/12/us-usa-florida-guns-idUSBRE8BB1SR20121212?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=22The number of active concealed weapons licenses in Florida, already home to more owners of such registered weapons than any other U.S. state, is expected to reach the 1 million mark next week, a state official said on Wednesday.
Applications for the permits in the state of 19.1 million people have doubled since 2007. Only 0.3 percent of the more than 2 million total permits issued since 1987 have been revoked, said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.
"Floridians who are obtaining these licenses are obtaining them for the right reason and are using them in an appropriate way," Putnam said.
The state processed more criminal background checks for firearm purchases on Black Friday, the busy shopping day that follows Thanksgiving, than any single other day in the state's history, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey said.
Rougly 1/3 of a population will be under 21 and not able to get a permit. So that's about 12 million adults in the state. So one in 12 of the adults on the street may be legally permitted to carry a concealed firearm. Being a violent criminal in FL can be a hazardous occupation. At those odds it would not be long until the thug runs into an armed person.
Glaug-Eldare
(1,089 posts)Florida's permit has superb reciprocity, so people apply for them from all over the country.
That said, nice milestone!
spin
(17,493 posts)doc03
(35,364 posts)to live in gated communities? How many guns will they need to think they are safe?
GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)It takes a lot of money to live in a gated community, and like all states, FL has more people outside the gates than inside.
doc03
(35,364 posts)I have searched for homes there and damn near everyone is in a gated community.
These aren't wealthy communities either I visited a couple in an RV park in Florida
they paid $17000 for a camper in a gated community. That is the main reason I have sort of forgotten the idea of moving there, if there is that much crime I think I will stay in Ohio.
GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)Gated dommunities aren't free. I just did a search. I picked a town at random, Dover, and kept the price under $80,000. None were in gated communities.
doc03
(35,364 posts)gejohnston
(17,502 posts)I certainly don't. I don't know anyone who lives in one, although I do drive past them.
PavePusher
(15,374 posts)"Everyone you know" does not equal "everyone in Florida" by a long shot, pardon the pun.
spin
(17,493 posts)and only a few of my friends or co-workers have lived in a gated community. I am far from being rich.
While the crime rate in Florida is high it is at a 40 year low.
"We are at a 40-year low in our crime rate in our state."
Rick Scott on Friday, April 13th, 2012 in comments to Reuters
***snip***
A reader (and Palm Beach Post reporter) on Twitter reported that Scott again said crime rates were at 40-year lows during a forum in West Palm Beach; she asked us to check it out. So we decided to investigate.
Our first stop was with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Crime statistics on the website only go back 11 years, so we contacted the department directly. It provided us with crime statistics from 2010 back to 1971, for a total of 40 years.
The department uses the number of crimes and the population of Florida to calculate crime rates, so different years can be compared. The crime rate shows how many crimes occurred per 100,000 people.
In 1971, the crime rate was 5,668. The rate crept up through the 1970s, peaking in the late 1980s at 8,908. The rate then slowly dropped through the 1990s. In 2000, it dropped below the 1971 mark and continued downward. In 2010, the crime rate reached a new low of 4,105. (See the data for yourself.)
http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/apr/17/rick-scott/rick-scott-said-florida-crime-rates-are-40-year-lo/
It is somewhat interesting to note that Florida passed "shall issue" concealed carry in 1987 just as the crime rate peaked. Obviously it's foolish to claim that the crime rate dropped because civilians started legally carrying firearms in public as there are far too many factors in the crime equation. However it is obvious that allowing CCW did not cause the crime rate to skyrocket.
I originally grew up in Ohio and after my time in the service I returned there. One of the wisest decisions I ever made was to leave the snow belt in northeast Ohio and move to the sunshine state. I figured that if many people in Ohio dreamed of retiring and moving to Florida it might be a good idea to go there when I was still young.
doc03
(35,364 posts)I finally retired so far I love it there. I visited a couple in a RV park near Arcadia and there was an open gate (maybe they close it after hours) also a sign that read all visitors must sign in at the office, they certainly aren't rich they bought a $17000 camper. I have a neighbor in Ohio that lives in the Rotunda 6 months a year I haven't been there but he says it is a gated community, according to him his home cost $750,000 he is pretty well off. I have relatives in Fort Lauderdale, I am going to visit them this winter, they say they live in a gated community. I know a couple that moved to the Villages last March not sure about that place, I don't really think I would want to live with 60,000 or so retired Republicans. I done some searching on real estate sites last year and seemed like most homes were in gated communities. Of course these were in your coastal areas near Sarasota, Fort Myers and Lauderdale. I'm sure out in the country there are lots of places that aren't gated. This year I plan on driving instead of flying so I can see more of the interior less congested places. I ran into a family of your rednecks on a fishing boat last winter, they sure as hell don't live in a gated community unless there is a guard tower. There was 6 of them and they didn't have a full set of teeth among them, they were onto some old guy's back on the boat because he was seasick, assholes..
gejohnston
(17,502 posts)That is where the nearest VA dental clinic happens to be. That is also the only reason I go there. Besides being all Republican, it is just one big assed sterile sculpted monoculture (plant and human) of over priced houses. If you can afford it, Key West is the place to be.
Don't make the mistake I made by buying in Citrus County. Picture Archie Bunker leaving Queens and coming here after he retired.
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)Our family lived behind a cattle gate, but we were the only family. Do we qualify?
doc03
(35,364 posts)$5 million (ugly) castle looking house they have a barbed wire fence and a red cattle gate across their driveway. I don't know it just doesn't seem to match the property.
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)Red. Foul.
Loudly
(2,436 posts)Guns and ammunition are an absolute BAD.
GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)Just had a double cup of hot chocolate.
Loudly
(2,436 posts)And what in the hell good can come of this??
GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)Legal concealed carry saves more innocent lives than it takes.
In Texas the detailed statistics are compiled annually by the Department of Public Safety and published on the internet. It is likely that the Texas experience with Concealed Handgun Licenses would be about the same in other states. The last year for which statistics are published is 2011 for convictions. http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/rsd/chl/index.htm
In 2011 there were 512,625 people who had CHLs. Out of those people there were exactly four (4) murder convictions. Out of the general population there were 553 convictions for murder in its various forms.
So very, very few CHL holders go bad, but some do.
The DPS also publishes an annual Crime in Texas Report. http://www.dps.texas.gov/crimereports/10/citCh3.pdf
From that report, page 15:
Statistics on murder circumstances, victims, and
victim/offender relationships on the next page
include justifiable homicides. Justifiable homicide
is the killing of a felon by a peace officer in the
line of duty or the killing (during the commission
of a felony) of a felon by a private citizen. In
2010, there were 98 justifiable homicides, of
which, 50 were felons killed by private citizens,
and 48 were felons killed by police.
In Texas all homicides, even those that are clearly self-defense, have to go before a grand jury which will rule if the killing was justified or not. So those 50 justified private citizen homicides were ones in which the defender genuinely and legitimately feared for his life. Since most shootings are merely woundings there would be a much larger number of justified woundings in which the defender genuinely feared for his life, but that number is not kept. Obviously there are dozens of cases each year in which a CHL holder uses their gun to save themselves.
Dozens of innocent lives saved versus four innocents killed shows the concealed carry is working in Texas. As already stated, there is no reason to believe that other CCW states have a different experience.
Legal concealed carry saves innocent lives.
slackmaster
(60,567 posts)...why do you care?
friendly_iconoclast
(15,333 posts)ProgressiveProfessor
(22,144 posts)spin
(17,493 posts)I imagine that it's a lot like watching a black and white TV.
The fact is that firearms and ammo are neither good or bad and are just inanimate objects. They are used by people to for either good or bad purposes.
friendly_iconoclast
(15,333 posts)...But the station keeps changing the call letters!