Op-Ed: Three months in Minnesota, citizens still law-abiding

.00025%.

2 out of 8000

That's how many right-to-carry permits the state of Minnesota has revolked since it began to issue them three months ago.

And like most cases involving the tiny fraction of withdrawn licenses in other states, in both Minnesota cases the permit was not at issue in the matters necessitating the revolkation.

For an excellent op-ed from a columnist who appears to be being convinced by experience:

Click here to read the op-ed in the Minneapolis Pioneer Press, or click on the "Read More..." link below for an archived version.

September 17, 2003
Taking back 2 gun permits proves exactly nothing
JOE SOUCHERAY
Pioneer Press Columnist

So far some guy up Anoka way tried to kill the engine of his brother's car. That cost him his permit to carry. And another guy, from the southern end of the metro, had his permit-to-carry privileges lifted after he was discovered to be standing in some other guy's yard yelling at him, then threatening him with his automobile.

That's two permits lifted since the new law went into effect and in both cases the permit was not at issue. For example, these gentlemen were not carrying anything at the time of the incidents that cost them their permits.

Institutionally we — I don't know, elitists, people with access to ink, women — are out to pinpoint every infraction regarding the new law even when the facts suggest we are barking up the wrong tree. The best we have been able to accomplish so far is two permits lifted out of 8,000 issued by sheriffs across Minnesota in the last three months.

Trust us. We're going to find something. There's that us again. A fellow doesn't mean to specifically indict newspapers. Poll respondents show that Minnesotans who fear the newly liberalized law will make Minnesota a more dangerous place still outnumber those who think it will be safer. It never occurred to me that it was an either-or proposition. That makes it sound like the Legislature voted for more shooting. It did not. The Legislature voted to remove the arbitrary and often capricious means by which sheriffs granted permits, or rather didn't grant most of the requests.

Have you heard the car-theft story? This was late July. A private investigator saw a car he knew to be stolen on Lexington in the Midway area. He pulled his gun on the driver and called police on his cell phone. When the police arrived they told the fellow to put down his gun. The citizen told police that he had a permit to carry. He produced it. It was verified. The car thief was arrested and our hero drove away.

That's the best the other side has come up with, meaning the score stands at two lifted permits and one case of a private investigator pulling his gun.

What is true is that the two lifted permit stories are as meaningless as the other one. The fellow out Anoka way was dealing with an angry brother. I've got news for the hysterical sorts. Brothers have been mad at each other since Cain and Abel. The one brother kept driving into his brother's retaining wall. The guy went into his house, got a gun, came outside and started shooting through the hood of the car. As the brother drove away our permit holder fired one more shot. The reckless discharge of a firearm cost this guy his permit, as well as it should have. There are those who would side with the shooter because he was on his own property. But once he put a slug into play by shooting at the fleeing vehicle he was lucky he didn't nail some distant kid riding a bicycle.

In the south metro incident a gun never even came into play. The guy who did the ranting and raving happened to be a permit holder but he never used a gun during his tirade.

So where are we since the new law went into place? Well, we're exactly where we were before the new law went into place, law abiding.