ILA file on CCW
               NRA-ILA RESEARCH & INFORMATION FACT SHEET
                       No Fire -- Not Even Smoke
               In VPC's Latest Whine About Right-To-Carry

      Concealed Carry: The Criminal's Companion is an attempt, by a
tiny anti-gun group that calls itself the Violence Policy Center
(VPC), to derail the right-to-carry movement currently sweeping
across the United States. It seeks to discourage passage of
statewide right-to-carry laws by disparaging Florida's model carry
law, in effect since 1987.

      The success of right-to-carry laws -- Florida's in particular
-- is by now well known, to legislators as well as to the general
public. According to the most recent data from the FBI Uniform
Crime Reports, those states with right-to-carry laws have
significantly lower overall violent and firearm-related violent
crime per capita rates than other states:

Violent crime rate                    22% lower
Firearm violent crime rate            29% lower
Homicide rate                         31% lower
Firearm homicide rate                 38% lower
Handgun homicide rate                 41% lower
Robbery rate                          36% lower
Firearm robbery rate                  38% lower
Aggravated assault rate               14% lower
Firearm aggravated assault rate       19% lower

      Florida's homicide and handgun homicide rates have dropped 22%
and 29%, since adopting right-to-carry in 1987, even as national
rates rose 15% and 50%. Anti-gun groups often try to malign
Florida's right-to-carry law by noting that its total violent crime
rate has increased since the law took effect, but an examination of
violent crime data only supports right-to-carry advocates'
arguments -- since 1987, Florida's violent crime rate has risen less
(17.7%) than the U.S. as a whole (22.3%), and only 30% of Florida's
violent crimes involve firearms.

      Florida's law relates only to the legality of carrying
firearms already lawfully possessed; it has nothing to do with
facilitating the acquisition or ownership of firearms by anyone.
Therefore, the VPC's primary assertion -- that Florida's carry law
"puts guns into the hands of criminals" -- is preposterous on its
face and only serves to discredit the group and cast suspicion on
the motives behind its "study."

      "What is the point?" seems the logical response to the VPC's
claim that "criminals do apply for concealed carry licenses."
Criminals occasionally apply for licenses and Florida rejects their
applications, just as banks regularly reject loan applications from
persons with bad credit ratings. Through Sept. 30, 1995, Florida
has rejected the carry license applications of 702 persons with
criminal records. The VPC even underscores this fact, by including
in its "study" a long list of persons alleged to have criminal
records who, after their carry license applications were rejected,
wanted their rejections reconsidered.

      As required by the law, Florida's licensing division quickly
revokes licenses mistakenly issued to disqualified individuals.
Florida has revoked 188 licenses mistakenly issued to persons with
criminal records. Therefore, the VPC's statement, that persons with
criminal records occasionally receive licenses, is but half the
story.

      The overwhelming majority of license applicants and those to
whom licenses have been issued have been law-abiding citizens. From
the law's inception, through Sept. 30, 1995, of 310,892
applications received, only 1,256 -- 0.4% -- have been rejected for
reasons of criminal histories. Further, citizens to whom carry
licenses have been issued have proven themselves to be more law-
abiding than the public generally. Of 303,213 licenses issued, only
52 -- 0.017% -- have been revoked because license holders committed
firearm-related crimes, including those occurring in situations in
which a carry license would not have been required to have a gun
present. John Russi, of Florida's Division of Licensing, says of
the 52 disqualified licensees, "When you compare that to the number
of licenses that were issued, that's very small." This year, in a
official correspondence to the governor, the Commissioner of the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement, James T. Moore, provided a
broader assessment of Florida's carry law, saying "From a law
enforcement perspective, the licensing process has not resulted in
problems in the community from people arming themselves with
concealed weapons. The strict provisions of 790.06, Florida
Statutes, preclude the licensing of convicted felons, etc., thus
allowing the permitting of law abiding citizens who do not
routinely commit crimes or otherwise violate the law."

      Obviously, the VPC ignores the big picture in Florida,
manufacturing superficial claims intended to put the spotlight on
whatever negative exceptions to the rule it believes it has found.
Fabrications, pretenses and other misleading claims made by various
anti-gun groups opposed to the right-to-carry apparently have
little effect on state legislators around the country. Since 1987,
legislators in 17 other states have voted to adopt right-to-carry
laws, and one state adopted right-to-carry through a judicial
ruling. In the first ten months of 1995 alone, seven states adopted
right-to-carry statutes, while three others voted to improve
existing laws.

      1989      -- Oregon, Pennsylvania, W. Virginia and Georgia
                (judicial ruling);
      1990      -- Idaho, Mississippi;
      1991      -- Montana;
      1994      -- Alaska, Arizona, Tennessee and Wyoming;
      1995      -- Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas,
                Nevada, Utah and Virginia

      All told, 28 states, 45% of the U.S. population -- 115 million
Americans -- now have right-to-carry laws.

      In summary, the VPC's attempt to discredit Florida's law today
echoes the fear-based campaign anti-gun activists waged in an
attempt to prevent passage of the law in 1987. At that time, right-
to-carry opponents claimed Florida would become the "GUNshine
State," plagued by vigilante justice and "Wild West" shootouts on
every corner. "[A] pistol-packing citizenry will mean itchier
trigger fingers....South Florida's climate of smoldering fear would
flash like napalm when every stranger totes a piece, and every
mental snap in traffic could lead to the crack of gunfire," one
carry opponent predicted, while another said that the police would
have to be armed with machineguns if citizens were allowed to carry
firearms for protection against criminals. As the evidence proves,
those predictions were as false in 1987 as the VPC's retrospect is
today.
                                                               11/6/95
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This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle
Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA.


