First Year of MN CCW Finds No Predicted 'Bloody Streets'
June 20, 2004
Gun Week
Late June marks the anniversary of the first issuance of a “shall-issue” concealed pistol license (CPL) in Minnesota, and in the past 12 months, none of the gunfights in the streets, shootouts at traffic lights or any of the other dire predictions from anti-gunners has come to pass.
“I think the big story,” observed St. Louis Park attorney David Gross, “is that there is no story. Relatively seamless; reasonably good cooperation with law enforcement.”
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Gross is one of two authors of the state’s concealed carry reform legislation that passed last year and was immediately signed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. A former member of the National Rifle Association board of directors, and one of the leaders of the Minnesota Concealed Carry Reform Now organization, Gross told Gun Week that while there has not been a dramatic drop in crime, there has been a decline that will become noticeable after the law has been in effect for a couple of years.
He does know of incidents in which armed citizens have defended themselves against a criminal act, but such cases do not get reported.
But the biggest impact of the law, he said, is that there have not been the kinds of bloody tragedies predicted by concealed carry opponents. Anti-gunners have contended that the law has been ineffective in reducing crime, and there is a move to repeal the statute.
Gross’ reaction to that is abrupt: “Has crime been eliminated? No. Did we expect it to be eliminated? No. We think victimization will go down. If a person fends off an attempted assault or robbery, there is still a crime, but . . . our response (to the antis) is why are you complaining there is a lack of body count?”
According to a recent report in The St. Paul Pioneer Press, about 22,100 new CPLs have been issued in a state where there used to be less than 13,000. That’s a spike of almost 70%, and Gross contended that under the old “discretionary issue” system, most of those permits went to cronies and off-duty law enforcement officers. Under the new statute, all qualified citizens must be issued a carry license, and the majority of sheriffs have stopped opposing the law.
One exception, reported by The Pioneer Press, is Washington County Sheriff Jim Frank. An opponent of the law, he has been reportedly stamping each CPL with the Latin phrase “sub recuso,” which translates to “under protest.” That drew an angry response from several citizens, including one who wrote back, “Osculor Meus Asellus,” which translates roughly to “Kiss my little donkey.”
Gross said there are plans to possibly take the sheriff to court for violating the statute, which specifically explains what information is to appear on a CPL. Latin terms are not on the list, and adding them is a technical violation of the law.
A former prosecuting attorney, Gross is now in private practice and he said some instructors are making a “comfortable living” by giving the required training courses. He noted that many permit holders under the old system have remarked how well they like the new training course, and how much they learn from it. That is a plus, Gross explained.
Gross co-authored the law with Hamline University Prof. Joe Olson, another former NRA director and longtime Minnesota gun rights activist. Gross balked at claims that there would be 50,000 legally-licensed Minnesotans by now under the new law. He said that figure was cooked up by opponents of the law.
“We didn’t think we’d get 50,000 in the first year,” he insisted. “(That prediction) came from hysteria. We thought at the end of five years, we’d end up with somewhere between 100,000 and 120,000 permits.”
The only way to tell will be at the end of the first five-year licensing cycle, he suggested.
It may take that long to establish a declining pattern in violent crime, too, Gross indicated. He is convinced crime will not go up because of the law.
There have been a handful of revocations, according to The Pioneer Press. One man lost his CPL for shooting his brother’s car. Another man was convicted for making threats with his pistol in an argument with a neighbor.
Overall, however, it appears Minnesota gunowners are behaving themselves.
The grassroots effort to strip the law out of the books is still underway, though it may be a daunting task. Proponents of the repeal effort continue to insist that the new CCW law is going to lead to trouble, yet the experiences of other states that have passed similar laws tend to refute that argument.
“We think that repeal of CCW is dead on arrival,” Gross said, “and it is going to become deader and buried deeper with the passage of time.”
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