Washington County sheriff: Maine’s concealed carry law ‘scares me to death’

[jpak]

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/12/27/news/hancock/washington-county-sheriff-maines-concealed-carry-law-scares-me-to-death/

ELLSWORTH, Maine — A Winter Harbor doctor’s inadvertently leaving a loaded gun in the bathroom of Ellsworth’s L.L. Bean Outlet was a “blip on the radar” of more than 40 years of military and medical service, said the doctor’s son.

But Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith said Thursday that incidents such as these are a cause for concern amid increasing requests for concealed carry permits in Maine.

“We’ve got thousands of people now with concealed carry permits,” Smith said. “You know, you carry a gun, you’re probably gonna have to take it out of its holster, and this could very easily happen.”

Dr. Benjamin Newman, 72, operates a private practice in Winter Harbor and was contracted by Washington County in June to treat inmates at the jail. He was charged with reckless conduct, a misdemeanor, in Ellsworth on Wednesday after allegedly leaving a loaded Walther 9 mm semiautomatic police pistol in the bathroom of the L.L. Bean Outlet in Ellsworth.

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GOP/NRA/ALEC CCW bullshit sucks

yup

[samsingh]

1. insanity

[jody]

2. LEO frequently make such mistakes but those who believe guns create crime never demand

810,000+ LEO turn in their handguns.

[jpak]

3. LEOs have extensive training - douchebag GOP/NRA/ALEC "shall issue" CCW laws

allow andy idiot to carry.

yup

[Clames]

7. Extensive training means injuring 8 innocent...

...bystanders in NYC? Massive logic fail.



Yup.

[jpak]

9. vs. millions of vigilante wannabee gun nuts with NO training?

Gun nuttery fail.

yup

[Clames]

11. Documented fact of one recent CCW holder...

...not using his weapon out of concern he would hit an innocent bystander. He should be training NYC police.


Logic fail.

Yup...

[jpak]

13. Trayvon Martin

yup

[Clames]

22. Vic Stacey

yup

[Eleanors38]

17. Yeah, couple years back a sheriff's deputy let his slide out while on the thunder box...

in Travis County. A responsible citizen returned it to an LEO colleague. Don't know if I would want to handle that gun.

[drhobo]

20. cc holders cimmit crime at a lower rate than LEOs

Can't find it now but I saw an example out of Florida that as a whole CC permit holders commit crime at a lower rate than members of law enforcement

[Lizzie Poppet]

4. So this sheriff is "scared" over an isolated incident...

...when tens of millions of CCW holders nationwide don't commit irresponsible acts with their weapons every day. I think what scares me here is that that county has a sheriff with the critical thinking skills of a cabbage.

[jpak]

5. But they do - and their numbers are increasing

LEOs have their lives on the line every day.

They are not "cabbge heads"

The gun nuts?

not so much....

yup

[Lizzie Poppet]

6. Don't suppose you have verifiable support for that claim, so you?

That the numbers of incidents of CCW holders screwing up in some way or another are in fact increasing, that is. If so, do they indicate that these incidents are anything other that complete statistical anomalies (and thus to be frightened of them is borderline irrational)?

[jpak]

12. Why yes I do

http://www.vpc.org/ccwkillers.htm

In 1996 at a Dallas, Texas, press conference, Tanya Metaksa, then the executive director of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action, promised, "As we get more information about right-to-carry, our point is made again and again...People who get permits in states which have fair right-to-carry laws are law-abiding, upstanding community leaders who merely seek to exercise their right to self-defense." This assertion, summarized by Metaksa in the blunt and absolute assertion that "these citizens don't commit violent crimes," was a key factor when state legislatures debated weakening concealed weapons laws to allow private citizens to carry concealed handguns in public. Had the NRA informed policymakers that concealed handgun permit holders would routinely be killing law enforcement personnel and perpetrating, rather than preventing, mass murders and other gun homicides few legislators--applying Metaksa's own standard--would have voted in favor of such laws.

These unfounded assertions are repeated to this day. In a September 28, 2010, opinion piece on Foxnews.com, concealed carry advocate John Lott asserted, "Fears about accidents and rampages by permit holders, and blood running in the streets however never materialized where concealed carry has been allowed."

Such false claims are endlessly repeated by pro-gun advocates in their ongoing efforts to expand the carrying of concealed handguns into bars, churches, schools, and places of employment. In addition, the gun lobby has been successful at hiding the truth about crimes committed by concealed handgun permit holders by forcing most states to keep secret the identities of permit holders. As a result, until recently, the false claims made by pro-gun advocates regarding these "upstanding community leaders" have been left unchallenged.

In 2009, the Violence Policy Center began an ongoing research project to identify killings from May 2007 to the present involving citizens legally allowed to carry concealed handguns. Because detailed information on such killings is not readily available, the VPC is forced to rely primarily on news accounts for reports of such killings and subsequent legal proceedings.

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gun nuttery fail

yup

[Lizzie Poppet]

14. Why no, you don't.

To begin with, that site's numbers do not support your assertion that these incidents are increasing. They don't refute it either: they're flat totals for the time period over which they were gathered.

The numbers do, however, substantiate my assertion, namely that concealed carriers commit an extremely small number of crimes in relation to their vast numbers. Mathematics: perhaps you've heard of them.

Also: "Because detailed information on such killings is not readily available, the VPC is forced to rely primarily on news accounts for reports of such killings and subsequent legal proceedings." And as we just saw with the Sandy Point atrocity, news reports about these sorts of incident are extremely reliable. Oh, wait...

anti-gun crackpot fail

yup

[ileus]

8. Never remove your PSD from it's holster...unless

you're at the range

you're at home

you're under attack


There's no excuse for having your PSD out of it's holster in public.

[jpak]

10. Penis Straightening Device?

[ileus]

15. Personal Safety Device.

[jpak]

16. Whatever floats yer boat!

[Eleanors38]

18. "He who first smelt it dealt it" -- Euripides

[Puha Ekapi]

19. Why do...

...some gun control advocates have a fixation with the penis?

[Kennah]

24. There is a misconception among some that Freud said gunowners suffer feelings of sexual inadequacy

[slackmaster]

21. Sounds like Donnie is out of his element

Sheriffs aren't supposed to be cowards.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

23. Yeah, because cops carrying guns is always so much better...

Free gun anyone? ROFL