This page is dedicated to educating people to
what should be the standard for Concealed Carry Laws for any state. We
take the Vermont law as our benchmark.
Vermont has the lowest crime rate in the nation (1 murder per 100,000
people) which earns it this distinguishing mark above other CCW laws.
To be simplistic and to the point, Vermont laws simply state that
if you are not a felon, or are not committing a crime, then you can carry
a concealed firearm. There are no Taxes or fees, no finger printing, no
background checks, NO REGISTRATION OF GUNOWNERS, no classes to pass, no
licenses. You are treated as innocent unless you prove to be otherwise.
Now....WHY ARE THE PEOPLE OF THIS GREAT NATION TREATED WITH LESS DIGNITY
AND TRUST??
Hey, criminals NEVER wait! Lets make the playing grounds fair! Here
are some talking points, then further down is an amendment we would like
ANY state to adopt. The following is an example for the State of Texas:
Talking Points for Vermont-style CCW Law
1. Carrying a firearm is a "right" not a "privilege"
2. The issuing of permits can be abused by officials
a. Refuse to issue
* New York City:
(see 3b below)
* Gary, Indiana:
Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary, Indiana, let it be known at a press conference
in the early 1980's that he would not be approving any citizens' gun applications.
He then said if they wanted to challenge his authority, they were welcome
to take him to court. It took
citizens 10 years (and thousands of dollars in legal fees) to get any relief.
* San Jose, CA:
Joseph McNamara, an anti-gun police chief (formerly) from San Jose, bragged
in his 1984 book, Safe & Sane, that, "I have made it considerably tougher
for residents to get handgun permits."
b. Require fingerprints -- VA (see fax)
c. Revoke for politically incorrect speech --
Oregon (see fax from New American)
d. Printed licensee holders' names in newspapers
-- VA
3. Officials can "raise the hurdles" in order to get a permit
* The power to license a right is the power to
destroy a right
a. Arbitrary Delays -- While New Jersey law requires
applications to be responded to within thirty days, delays of ninety days
are routine; sometimes, applications are delayed for several years for
no readily apparent reason. (1)
b. Arbitrary Denials -- Officials in New York
City routinely deny gun permits for ordinary citizens and store owners
because -- as the courts have ruled -- they have no greater need for protection
than anyone else in the city. In fact, the authorities have even
refused to issue permits when the courts
have ordered them to do so. (2)
c. Arbitrary Fee Increases -- In 1994, the Clinton
administration pushed for a license fee increase of almost 1,000 percent
on gun dealers. According to U.S. News & World Report, the administration
was seeking the license fee increase "in hopes of driving many of America's
258,000 licensed gun dealers out of business." (3)
4. Vermont has the lowest crime rate in the nation (Morgan Quitno Press,
Crime State Rankings 1996)
a. Lott study shows how CCW laws drops crime rate
5. The waiting period involved in getting a permit can threaten one's safety
(criminals don't bother to go through the waiting period since they don't
apply for permits)
Note: Most of the examples I know about relate
to the waiting period involved in purchasing a gun. But the principle
is the same -- waiting periods (whether to buy a gun or to carry a gun)
can kill.
a. CO -- talk show host (Alan Berg) gunned down
after being denied a CCW permit in 1984
b. NY -- In 1983, Igor Hutorsky was murdered by
two burglars who broke into his Brooklyn furniture store. The tragedy is
that some time before the murder his business partner had applied for permission
to keep a handgun at the store. Even four months after the murder,
the former partner had still not heard from the police about the status
of his gun permit. (4)
c. WI -- In 1991, Bonnie Elmasri inquired about
getting a gun to protect herself from a husband who had repeatedly threatened
to kill her. She was told there was a 48 hour waiting period to buy
a handgun. But unfortunately, Bonnie was never able to pick up a
gun. She and her two sons were
killed the next day by an abusive husband of whom the police were well
aware. (5)
c. VA -- In 1993, Marine Cpl. Rayna Ross bought
a gun (in a non-waiting period state) and used it to kill an attacker in
self-defense two days later. (6) Had a 5-day waiting period been
in effect, Ms. Ross would have been defenseless against the man who was
stalking her.
d. Los Angeles riots -- USA Today reported that
many of the people rushing to gun stores during the 1992 riots were "lifelong
gun-control advocates, running to buy an item they thought they'd never
need." Ironically, they were outraged to discover they had to wait
15 days to buy a gun for self-defense. (7)
6. CCW licenses register gun owners -- and licensing can lead to
confiscation of firearms
* Step One: Registration -- In the mid-1960's
officials in New York City began registering long guns. They promised
they would never use such lists to take away firearms from honest citizens.
But in 1991, the city banned (and soon began confiscating) many of those
very guns. (8)
* Step Two: Confiscation -- In 1992, a New
York city paper reported that, "Police raided the home of a Staten Island
man who refused to comply with the city's tough ban on assault weapons,
and seized an arsenal of firearms. . . Spot checks are planned [for other
homes]." (9)
* Foreign Countries -- Gun registration has led
to confiscation in several countries, including Greece, Ireland, Jamaica
and Bermuda. (10) And in an exhaustive study on this subject, Jews
for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership has researched and translated
several gun control laws from foreign countries. Their publication,
Lethal Laws: "Gun Control" is the Key to Genocide documents how gun
control (and confiscation) has preceded the slaughter and genocide of millions
of people in Turkey, the Soviet Union, Germany, China, Cambodia and others.
(11)
7 . Officials cannot license or register a constitutional right
* The Supreme Court held in Lamont v. Postmaster
General (1965) that the First Amendment prevents the government from registering
purchasers of magazines and newspapers -- even if such material is "communist
political propaganda." (12)
8. Law-abiding citizens with guns show self-restraint
* Citizens shoot and kill at least twice as many
criminals as police do every year (1,527 to 606). (13) And readers
of Newsweek learned in 1993 that "only 2 percent of civilian shootings
involved an innocent person mistakenly identified as a criminal. The 'error
rate' for the police, however, was 11
percent, more than five times as high." (14)
1. Kopel, "Trust the People," at 26.
2. Id., at 25-26.
3. U.S. News & World Report, (17 January 1994):
8.
4. Senate, "Handgun Violence," at 107, citing Novae
Russkae Slovo, Vol. LXXII, No. 26.291, (6 Nov. 1983).
5. Congressional Record, 8 May 1991, pp. H 2859,
H 2862.
6. Wall Street Journal, 3 March 1994 at A10.
7. Jonathan T. Lovitt, "Survival for the armed,"
USA Today, 4 May 1992.
8. On August 16, 1991, New York City Mayor David
Dinkins signed Local Law 78 which banned the possession and sale of certain
rifles and shotguns.
9. John Marzulli, "Weapons ban defied: S.I.
man, arsenal seized," Daily News, 5 September 1992.
10. David Kopel, "Trust the People: The Case
Against Gun Control," [Cato Institute] Policy Analysis 109 (July 11, 1988):25.
11. Jay Simkin, Aaron Zelman and Alan M. Rice,
Lethal Laws: "Gun Control" is the Key to Genocide, (Milwaukee:
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, 1994).
12. Lamont v. Postmaster General, 381 U.S.301,
85 S.Ct.1493,
14. L. Ed. 2d 398 (1965).
13. Kleck, Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America,
(1991):111-116, 148.
14. George F. Will, "Are We 'a Nation of Cowards'?",
Newsweek (15 November 1993):93.
****HERE IS THE AMENDMENT****
Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute for HB________
Strike all after the enacting clause and insert in lieu thereof the following:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the "Second Amendment Protection Act of
1999."
SECTION 2. PROTECTION OF SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS.
(a) Section 411.047, Government Code, is repealed.
ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE:
(b) Paragraph (7), as added in 1995 by S.B. 60, of subsection
(b) of section 46.02, Penal Code, is amended by striking all after "handgun"
the first time it appears and inserting in lieu thereof a period.
OR
(b) Section 46.02, Penal Code, is repealed.
(c) Section 46.03, Penal Code, is amended by --
(1) striking subsection
(f); and
(2) striking "(g)",
and inserting in lieu thereof "(f)".
ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE:
(d) Article 4413(29ee), Civil Statutes, is amended to
read as follows:
"A person is eligible to carry
a concealed firearm in the State of Texas if such person is not prohibited
from possessing a firearm under section 922 of title 18, United States
Code."
OR
(d) Article 4413(29ee), Civil Statutes, is amended to
read as follows:
"A person is eligible to carry
a firearm in the state of Texas if such person is not prohibited from possessing
a firearm under section 922 of title 18, United States Code."
ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE:
(e) Section 46.035, Penal Code, is amended --
(1) by striking
"License Holder", "license holder", and "license holder's" wherever they
appear and inserting in lieu thereof "Person", "person", and "person's",
respectively;
(2) by striking
"under the authority of Article 4413(29ee), Revised Statutes", wherever
it appears;
(3) by striking
paragraph (2) in subsection (f), and
(4) by striking
"(3)" in subsection (f) and inserting in lieu thereof "(2)".
OR
(e) Section 46.035, Penal Code, is amended --
(1) by striking
subsection (a);
(2) by striking
"(b)", "(c)", "(d)", "(e)", "(f)", and "(g)", wherever they appear, and
inserting in lieu thereof "(a)", "(b)", "(c)", "(d)", "(e)", and "(f)",
respectively;
(3) by striking
"License Holder", "license holder", and "license holder's" wherever they
appear and inserting in lieu thereof "Person", "person", and "person's",
respectively,
(4) by striking
"under the authority of Article 4413(29ee), Revised Statutes", wherever
it appears;
(5) by striking
paragraph (2) in subsection (e), as renumbered by paragraph (2) of this
subsection;
(6) by striking
"(3)" in subsection (e), as renumbered by paragraph (2) of this subsection,
and inserting in lieu thereof "(2)";
(7) by striking
"(a)", the first time it appears in subsection (f) as redesignated by paragraph
(2) of this subsection; and
(8) by striking
subsection (h),
(f) Subsection (m) of subsection 51.16, Family
Code, is repealed.
(g) Paragraph (6) of subsection (b) of Section
215.001, Local Government Code, is amended by striking "other than a person
licensed to carry a concealed handgun under article 4413 (29ee), Revised
Statutes,".
SECTION 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.
This Act shall take effect immediately upon enactment.
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