New reality for nay-sayers: Their predictions will not come to pass; ours will

Ohio's news media have begun to struggle with reality: the general public is about to learn what proponents of this legislation have long known. Issuing concealed handgun licenses (CHL's) is not going to change daily living in Ohio. There will be no shoot-outs at fender-benders, or normal domestic arguments turned homicide.

What is the anti-gun media doing to prepare for their readers to learn they've been lied to? In the case of the Dayton Daily News, they've finally decided it'd be ok to look past the borders of our state. And for once, DDN readers are finally allowed in on a secret this paper's editors, along with other liberal media in Ohio, have been keeping for years.

April 4, 2004
Dayton Daily News

Michigan sees few problems with concealed carry law

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. | The woman, robbed four years earlier, now carries a handgun in her purse — legally.

She was a target again March 19. This time she drew her gun. She didn't fire, but police are certain she thwarted a robbery.

"She's very fortunate," said William Dwyer, chief of Farmington Hills' police department. "I firmly believe that she probably saved her own life."

The married mother of two is one of more than 10,000 Oakland County residents issued a permit under Michigan's concealed-carry law.

Ohio's new concealed-carry law goes into effect Thursday. Three years after Michigan passed a similar law, predictions abound about how Ohio will change with the law. The Michigan experience suggests: very little.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

More than 80,000 licenses were issued during the first two years of concealed-carry. Only 1,344 applicants were denied. State officials revoked 107 permits during that time period.

More important, officials report no major incidents involving misuse by a permit holder.

"We really haven't experienced what I thought we would experience," said Dwyer, a past president of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, which lobbied against the 2001 law that changed Michigan from a "may issue" to a "shall issue" state. "But the law is fairly new."

He said the March 19 robbery, on a Friday morning at a suburban office building parking lot, has him rethinking his position.

"I'm not going to say that I'm totally in favor of it," Dwyer said. "In this case, the victim used good judgment."

The current president of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, Charlevoix Chief Dennis Halverson, attributes the lack of problems to the high standards required by the law.

As in Ohio, Michigan residents must pass a criminal background check and take a course by a certified instructor. Eight hours are required in Michigan, including three on a firing range. Ohio requires 12, including two on a range.

"There are checks and balances in our system, which has helped," Halverson said. "It's not that easy a process."

It's a process that saw a lot of demand early on; those who wanted concealed-carry for years lined up to exercise their new right. That demand appears to be tapering off. The state issued 53,000 licenses the first year, 27,499 the second. Ohio instructors predict a similar trend.

"I think it's something that they've waited for because it's part of our constitutional right," said Dave DuVall, firearms manager at Cabela's in Dundee, Mich.

Cabela's is a 225,000-square-foot superstore for outdoors enthusiasts off U.S. 23, on Cabela Boulevard. In front is an 18-foot-high bronze sculpture of two fighting grizzly bears. Inside is a bait shop, a gun library of rare and collectable firearms, an archery range, a restaurant with a wild-game menu — bison brats, ostrich sandwiches — and a laser arcade where kids can test their shooting skills.

Cabela's, 15 miles from the state border, draws Ohio residents, though DuVall said he couldn't discuss how many customers. Concealed-carry is part of its business, but he declined to disclose numbers, citing corporate policy.

"It's absolutely a market that will continue to grow, given that Ohio is about to step on to that," DuVall said. "It's got to be a plus."

Two customers at the store, friends from the Flint area, said they were considering permits.

"I've been assaulted before," said Steve Nicholson of Flint. He also said a friend had gotten a CCW permit, and was carrying when assaulted by men with baseball bats.

"He pulled out his Glock," Nicholson said. "They took off."

Nicholson said people in rural areas might not be able to count on a quick police response.

His friend, Kirk Charboneau of Burton, said he would probably get a permit. Though never a crime victim, "that doesn't mean you can't be," Charboneau said. "Things are getting rougher and rougher all the time."

Those interested in concealed-carry tend not to be newbies, but experienced shooters who want to learn more about firearms handling, DuVall said.

What he is not seeing, DuVall said, is "some macho individual from the Wild West. That's not at all the type of person who's getting these permits. These are responsible citizens."

DuVall himself is a permit holder. He got one "because I felt it was a right that I had," he said.

Still, he wasn't carrying Wednesday. The store doesn't allow him to, he said.

'An insurance policy'

Ohio and Michigan laws differ. Most notably: Michigan doesn't have the long list of restricted areas that Ohio does, something that bothers David Felbeck, immediate past president and current legislative analyst for the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners, a group that lobbied heavily to enact Michigan's law.

Felbeck said he has carried his pistol in the gallery of the state Senate. One of the few places where he can't carry is a courtroom, but Felbeck said that was reasonable because of the law enforcement presence.

"Any place that doesn't have armed people to protect me, I should be able to carry," Felbeck said.

A retired University of Michigan professor who lives in Ann Arbor, Felbeck is also a National Rifle Association-certified instructor. He carries a concealed handgun "wherever it's legal."

He compared carrying a handgun to having homeowner's insurance.

"I don't expect to get attacked," Felbeck said. "I hope I never, ever even have to draw the gun. It's an insurance policy."

Felbeck said he was originally against the education requirement, but now strongly supports it, because people need to know the limits of self-defense law, and the potential criminal and civil liability of misusing a handgun.

"First: If you can, you run," Felbeck said. "But it's better to defend yourself than to be killed."

Carolynne Jarvis, executive director of the Lansing-based Michigan Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, said she opposed the concealed-carry law because it was "government convincing citizens to arm themselves against each other."

She said she was not surprised by the lack of problems: "We never predicted blood in the streets."

Felbeck disagrees.

"The hypothesis is that as soon as we have a pistol on our belts we're going to become homicidal maniacs," he said. He described permit carriers as the most law-abiding group, even beyond police officers.

Felbeck points to the Farmington Hills woman who thwarted her robbery.

"She didn't have to discharge the gun," he said. "That's great."

When concealed-carry passed, law enforcement officials across Michigan wondered what the effect would be. In Farmington Hills, a suburb northwest of Detroit, the March 19 incident stood out.

"This is the first story, good or bad," said assistant chief Chuck Nebus. "There's been like nothing."

Three people involved in the robbery attempt have been arrested, including one of the victim's co-workers, who set her up, Chief Dwyer said.

The woman, who Dwyer said does not want to be identified, was walking in the parking lot at 6:30 a.m. when she noticed an unfamiliar car. Robbed in Detroit four years earlier, she had a permit.

She became more suspicious when a man wandered around the lot, then came within 10 feet of her, Dwyer said.

"That's when she pulled out her weapon," Dwyer said. "He backed off."

The man ran back to the car, and he and a woman drove off. The victim called police on her cellphone, and officers arrested the pair within minutes. Police found a gun was in the car. Later, the pair admitted the victim's co-worker had set her up, Dwyer said.

"She had been wearing very expensive jewelry to work," Dwyer said. "It was all about jewelry."

All three suspects have been charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery. Carl Walker, 21, of Detroit, who approached the victim, and Monique Bell, 26, who was in the car, have been charged with possession of a firearm in commission of a felony, according to police.

Police are also seeking the boyfriend of Daphne Patterson, 28, the co-worker who allegedly set up the victim. Her boyfriend, not yet charged, is on parole from a previous conviction for conspiracy to commit armed robbery. Police believe he recruited Bell and Walker for the robbery, Dwyer said.

Dwyer, a Detroit officer for 23 years before becoming Farmington Hills chief 19 years ago, said his community of about 82,000, the largest in Oakland County, is affluent, with an average house price of $220,000. Studies have ranked it the safest city in Michigan, he said. There hasn't been a homicide in two years.

His reservations about CCW law remain, and Dwyer said he still worries that someone, afraid and confused, will misread a situation and kill an innocent person. But he believes the law worked on March 19.

"There's no doubt in my mind," Dwyer said. "He would have used up to deadly force to get the jewelry."