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Florida crime rates dropping
Interesting data released today. Florida is, of course, the inventor of liberalized handgun concealed carry permits, of "castle doctrine" laws that allow lethal force in self defense without having to retreat, and a few other such measures.
Naturally, the Brady Campaign used Florida as their poster child for a gun-crazy state. Brady began an advertising campaign to warn tourists against entering this dangerous state. "The �Shoot First� law is a new law in Florida that police, prosecuting attorneys and gun violence prevention advocates worry may lead to the reckless use of guns on the streets of Florida cities." Sarah Brady intoned, ""The net effect of the new 'Shoot First' law in Florida is, unfortunately, precisely what we feared. People are dying who did not deserve to die." Just for good measure, Brady added "Gun violence in Florida could increase in 2005 because Congress failed to renew the federal assault weapon ban, which expired last fall, and Florida has no state law restricting assault weapons or rapid-fire ammunition magazines. Florida also does not require background checks at gun shows, does not require child-safety locks to be sold with guns, does not have any handgun safety standards to limit Saturday night specials and even forces police to let people carry hidden handguns in public."
Well, the Palm Beach Post reports that Florida's crime rates have fallen to the lowest level since 1971. "A telephone message left for comment after hours with the The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, D.C. was not immediately returned."
You can get the report, in pdf format, here. It shows that, even though the state's population is growing, total homicides fell by 6.9%, and firearm homicides by 6.1%. Given the population increase, the decrease in rates would have been greater.
[UPDATE in light of comment: I know that NRA and Gun Owners of America rate candidates. I suspect that, come election time, you can find the ratings online somewhere, but don't have a url cite for it].
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Comments
Florida may indeed be the vanguard of the modern rush to shall-issue concealed carry, but can I please get some kudos for my home state of Washington? We had shall-issue way back when nobody know it was cool, and we're so relaxed about it that we don't even require a test of any kind.
Posted by: Kirk Parker at July 11, 2006 11:51 PM
Kirk is right. Washington's shall issue law dates from 1961.
Posted by: Clayton E. Cramer at July 12, 2006 08:47 AM
Kudos to Washington. Great post, though the stats don't surprise me!
Posted by: Kath at July 12, 2006 09:36 AM
OT, but related, the state senator from my distict recently announced that he will file a castle doctrine bill for Texas when the new session starts in January. I'm sure it'll pass. We're on a roll.
Posted by: juliesa at July 12, 2006 11:36 AM
Great Post, Sort of makes me want to leave California where the crime rate just seems to climb and climb. Here is a question though, is there anywhere we can get listings of which persons running for office is gun friendly?
Boots
Posted by: Boots at July 13, 2006 08:32 AM
tsk, tsk David. You should know where the NRA ratings are. :)
NRA posts their ratings on their PVF website: www.nrapvf.org.
Posted by: Bitter at July 13, 2006 11:27 AM