Reply #72: People do carry them around for personal protection without serious problems ... [View All]

[spin]

For example Florida has had "shall issue" concealed carry since Oct 1, 1987. In that twenty three year plus time frame the state has issued 1,953,856 concealed weapons permits of which 801,219 are currently valid.

Only 168 licenses have been revoked for a crime that involved a firearms that was committed after the license had been issued. Not all those crimes involved a shooting, unfortunately the Florida web page doesn't break the crimes down further.

source:http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/stats/cw_monthly.html

In the mid 90s there was a rash of attacks on tourists in Florida. These tourist were targeted because they were driving rental cars that had unique license plates which the criminals could recognize. Criminals preferred to avoid armed Floridians and viewed unarmed tourists as easy prey. The license tags were changed.

October 17, 1994
"Shall Issue": The New Wave of Concealed Handgun Permit Laws

By Clayton E. Cramer & David B. Kopel

***snip***

From the enactment of the 1987 Florida carry reform until August 31, 1992, the Dade County permit incident tracking project provided the most detailed information available about actual incidents involving carry permit holders. The tracking program had been created as result of intense fears among some police administrators about the consequences of the carry reform law. The tracking program was abandoned in the fall of 1992, because of the rarity of incidents involving carry permit holders, and the greatly diminished concern about the issue on the part of law enforcement administrators. The fact that negative incidents involving permit holders were so rare as to not be worth counting is in itself evidence of the lack of negative effects of carry reform.

***snip***

Based on the reports of incidents known to the police, the Florida carry reform law would appear to be a net plus for public safety. The pro-safety result becomes even more lopsided if one believes that the persons who committed crimes with their licensed firearms probably would have committed the same crimes even without a license.

***snip***

Accordingly, we now look at the overall trends in Florida murder rates. Of all the states that enacted concealed carry reform, Florida shows the most dramatic change. As the graph details, Florida's murder rate throughout the period 1975-1986 was between 118% and 157% of the murder rate elsewhere in America. After passage of Florida's law, the murder rate began declining, rapidly, dramatically, and consistently, at a time when the rest of the U.S. was experiencing an increase in murder rates. By 1991, Floridians were less likely to be murdered than people elsewhere in America. Only in 1992 did the murder rate percentage stop falling. Even then, this is because the U.S. murder rate fell more than 10% from 1991 to 1992, while the Florida murder rate fell "only" 5%.

Greater safety for Florida residents and American tourists may be the reason for another notable characteristic of Florida in recent headlines--criminal attacks on foreign tourists. These tourists stood out because of the distinctive rental car license plates that Florida issued until recently. Unlike Florida residents or American tourists (who might shoot back), foreign tourists would certainly be unarmed, suggests the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. <41> emphasis added
http://rkba.org/research/cramer/shall-issue.html

The concealed carry program has been very successful in Florida. It shows that honest citizens can carry firearms concealed and pose no real threat to other honest citizens. In fact your chances of getting shot in Florida by a person with a legally concealed weapon is less than your chances of getting hit by lighting. This, of course, assumes that you are an also an honest person.

Every year, Florida averages 10 deaths and 30 injuries from lightning strikes, with several of these usually occurring in or around Tampa.<7> University of Florida lightning expert Martin A. Uman has calculated that the average resident is within a half-mile of 10 to 15 lightning strikes every year.<8> TECO Energy, the local electric utility, spends over USD $1,000,000 annually to repair transformers and other equipment damaged by lightning strikes.<4>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_the_Tampa_Bay_area