Date: Tue, 18 Jul 1995 01:49:08 -0700 From: Jeff Chan To: firearms-alert Subject: LETTER: Progressive reform of concealed weapon law Date: Mon, 17 Jul 1995 15:11:34 -0700 (PDT) From: "Edgar A. Suter" To: letters@plaind.com Subject: Progressive reform of concealed weapon law ************************************************************************* * Edgar A. Suter, MD suter@crl.com * * National Chair Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research, Inc.* ************************************************************************* July 17, 1995 Dear Editor, Ironically, it is your emotional editorial ("Ohio's Pending Arms Race," The Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/17/95, Page 8-B) that, without supportive data, panders to the fears of Ohio's citizens. In Ohio, as in other states where they have opposed reform, the anti-self-defense lobby claims that blood will run in the streets, but we do not have to rely on such political histrionics. Our national physician think tank has examined the data and published the results of our study of the reform of concealed weapons law ("Violence in America - Effective Solutions," Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia, June 1995, pages 253-263). As of 1994, one-third of Americans lived in the 22 progressive states that had reformed laws to allow good citizens to readily protect themselves outside their homes, openly or concealed. In those states crime rates are lower for _every_ category of crime indexed by the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. Homicide, assault, and overall violent crime are each 40% lower, armed robbery is 50% lower, rape is 30% lower, and property crimes are 10% lower. The reasonable reform of concealed weapon laws resulted in none of the mayhem prophesied by the anti-self-defense lobby. You wrote of Florida, but failed to note that Florida had issued over a quarter of a million licenses and not one innocent person had been killed or injured by a concealed weapon licensee in the 8 years post-reform. In opposing reform, fear is often spread that "everyone would be packing guns," but, after reform, most states have licensed fewer than 2% (and in no state more than 4%) of qualified citizens. The anti-self-defense lobby has claimed that violent crime rose 19% in Florida following reform, but they fail to note that violent crime rose 23% nationally. Following reform, Florida's homicide rate fell from 36% above the national average to 4% below the national average and remains _below_ the national average to this day. There have been matched state pair analyses, crime trend studies, and county-by-county research demonstrating that licensing good, mentally-competent adults to carry concealed weapons for protection outside their homes saves many lives, so gun prohibitionists and the media should support such reforms, _if_ saving lives is truly their motivation. Respecfully, Edgar A. Suter MD National Chair Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research, Inc. 5201 Norris Canyon Road #140 San Ramon CA 94583-5405 phone 510-277-0333 FAX 510-277-1283