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 =+=+=+=+ This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA.