It Doesn't Bleed, But Will It Lead?: Richmond Newspaper Finds Drop in Gun Crimes After Va. Allowed Guns in Bars
Here's a story I don't expect the media to trumpet, partly because it cuts against the MSM's preferred narrative on gun laws.
"Virginia's bars and restaurants did not turn into shooting galleries as some had feared during the first year of a new state law that allows patrons with permits to carry concealed guns into alcohol-serving businesses," Mark Bowes of the Richmond Times-Dispatch noted in an August 14 story:
The number of major crimes involving firearms at bars and restaurants statewide declined 5.2 percent from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011, compared with the fiscal year before the law went into effect, according to crime data compiled by Virginia State Police at the newspaper's request.
And overall, the crimes that occurred during the law's first year were relatively minor, and few of the incidents appeared to involve gun owners with concealed-carry permits, the analysis found.
A total of 145 reported crimes with guns occurred in Virginia bars and restaurants in fiscal 2010-11, or eight fewer than the 153 incidents in fiscal 2009-10. State police track all murders, non-negligent manslaughters, aggravated assaults, forcible sex crimes and robberies in more than two dozen categories, including "bars/nightclubs" and "restaurants."
So far it appears no major metropolitan newspapers have picked up the story with the exception of the York Times's Diner's Journal blog today linked to Bowes's story in a "What We're Reading" roundup:
Richmond Times Dispatch: Gun crime in bars and restaurants has declined since Virginia passed a law allowing people to carry concealed weapons in bars and restaurants. — Sam Sifton
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Comments
This news dosen't fit the MSM template
Submitted by Red Jeep on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 1:00pm.
File in the circular file.
VA weapon laws
Submitted by GLondon on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 1:13pm.
If every State enacted these laws, it would release more moron career law dummies to plot to send other weapons to Mexico so we'd have an even match when we begin the 2nd. Mexican War.
Sometime when you're in a safe place, ask any LEO to explain his duty...to Protect and Serve the SYSTEM, NOT ...YOU.
Their job to catch the mutts AFTER they've already beaten you to hell, NOT to stop it from happening. That's why a .45 round between the eyes makes an easy self-defense premise, and deters perps.
"Virginia's bars and
Submitted by MikeB on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 1:24pm.
"Virginia's bars and restaurants did not turn into shooting galleries as some had feared during the first year of a new state law that allows patrons with permits to carry concealed guns into alcohol-serving businesses."
Don't the anti-gun idiots ever get tired of being wrong? When Oklahoma passed their "Make My Day" law, the lace-panty crowd wailed and gnashed teeth about the upcoming holocaust. It didn't happen. When Florida, soon to be followed by Texas, Oklahoma, and 36 other states passed their "shall issue" concealed carry permit laws, the lace-panty crowd wailed and gnashed their teeth about the streets turning into a series of "gunfights at the OK Corral". It didn't happen. When 36 separate states passed various forms of "Castle Doctrine" laws, the GFWs hysterically screamed about ... well, you know the drill by now.
MSM Always Bury
Submitted by Comrade Jim on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 1:34pm.
Stories that demonstrate the maxim: More-Guns make Less-Crime.
An observation -
Submitted by Ashrak on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 2:34pm.
I believe statistics falling this way, trending this way, is why SCOTUS finally relented and admitted to the reality that the interest balancing approach cannot apply to Second Amendment recognized rights any more than it can to other inalienable rights.
Gun Grabbers have long held that rising crime was a reason to infringe that which itself says cannot be infringed. Now that the crystal clear reality comes through the media filter - Thanks John Lott - they figure they had better eliminate use of it altogether. Ironically, the man who finally proved the grabbers wrong will see his proof rendered useless as the opposite of it was used for decades. By proving that crime does not rise, that it even goes down in most cases, John Lott has obliterated the interest balancing approach altogether. Grabbers could not see their favorite tool used AGAINST them! So they prohibit it.
Next step - apply the same thing to the wicked corruption that is "permission slips". Folks like to call them "permits" but "permission slips" is what they really are. Those who support them need to think long and hard about "may issue" permission slips being required to go to church - or worse yet, to not go to church. SCOTUS finally said it, "The Second Amendment is no different than the First."
What "regulation" folks argue for regarding the Second, they also argue for regarding the First. Many should think through what firearm "regulation" they support these days, huh?
Indeed.
Try again
Submitted by Unsane on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 8:45pm.
I know it irritates you to no end, but I like the CHLs. Why? Because it is just one more way to shut up the anti-gun zealots.
And it is hardly a permission slip. In this state, I can walk down the street with a rifle or a shotgun and there is nothing the cops can do about it. A long gun can be carried anywhere in TX. Try that in any other state in the Union.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
H ere in Virginia
Submitted by misterbee241 on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 11:55am.
you can openly carry your handgun on the street. That's not to say a cop wont "detain" you for questioning, but he cant lock you up for it. You only need a "permission" slip to carry one under your coat or in your pocket. I have my permission slip, and i intend to keep it. And btw, the "permission" slip in Virginia is not an infringement. Any law abiding citizen, non-felon, can get one. If you're a gangsta, it might be a little more difficult. But gangstas dont worry about "permission" slips anyway.
And the anti-gun people still deny it
Submitted by RSweeney on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 2:34pm.
The other interesting part is the inability of the anti-gun rights leaders to admit that they were wrong.
Arrogance and ignorance are the hall marks of liberals it seems.
No shoot, Sherlock!?!
Submitted by Newsbubba on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 3:15pm.
I remember the good old days, when every guy in high school who had a car also had his gun and gear in the trunk so he could bust out right after school to hunt for a couple of hours before dark. Not many bothered to lock the cars. No need because nobody bothered your stuff.
I even remember the principle dragging one kid out to the kid's car during recess one time because he heard that the kid had gotten a new shotgun for Christmas. The principle couldn't wait to see it! He loved it.
Funny thing is, nobody even thought about shooting up the place or killing someone. Just never crossed our minds. (Well. there was that one time when some polecat snaked my girlfriend, but the thought passed before lunch.)
Now my hometown wants to have a Take Back the Night something or other because so many people are getting mugged coming home from the bars early in the morning. (I'm talking about a half dozen in a year. Whoopee!) I told the organizer who asked me to join them that I had a Take Back the Night demonstration every night because I carried concealed, and I suggested that she do the same. She did not think that was funny.
Practice gun control; hit what you aim at.
I remember that well.
Submitted by misterbee241 on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 12:00pm.
Something else i remember too. back in the 50s at my elementary school, after christmas it looked like the wild west. Westerns were popular on tv then and all the boys got guns and holster sets made like our favorite tv cowboy hero. We went packing, and the teachers were not bothered in the least. But we kept the desperadoes from the school yard. now if you just draw a picture of a gun in school you get the cops on you. To my knowledge, nobody i went to school with ever killed anybody.
Remember, when seconds count...
Submitted by johnsonl on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 3:44pm.
...the Police are only minutes away.
P.S. I am a police officer.
Well said, johnson!
Submitted by NC Cop on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 4:12pm.
When NC first came out with concealed carry, I wasn't very pleased with it. I sure don't mind telling everyone that I was dead wrong!!! I think it is fantastic!! You can't argue with the crime numbers that go down when concealed OR open carry policies are enacted.
Thanks, cops.
Submitted by Newsbubba on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 5:34pm.
I'm glad that some of you understand that bad guys don't bother to get CCP's.
I've only had to pull my weapon once in, what 20 years, and when my wife called 911, the operator asked her to tell me to "put the gun away." When my wife yelled that to me, the guy looking down the barrel almost smiled.
I yelled back to my wife to tell 911 to kiss my a$$ and get the cops here, NOW.
The cops showed up within minutes and had the guy bundled off. They had no problem with the fact that I was standing there with a weapon. They did a great job. 911 operator was a moron.
I am interested to see how
Submitted by ricklail on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 5:49pm.
I am interested to see how our modified Castle Doctrine is going to work out. As I understand now it makes the DA prove that a person was not going to be harmed.
VA Civil Defense League
Submitted by GregE on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 8:10pm.
I was talking with the VCDL president a few weeks ago and asked where things were on the castle doctrine. In a nutshell, he said VA has a "stand your ground" (law, I think) that pretty much covers things. You do NOT have to retreat to the furthest recesses of your home and hope the invader doesn't chase you into that space. You can legally stand your ground. And why on earth would you NOT be able to do that anyway. Geeesh.
It is a good thing until...
Submitted by pfurman69 on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 3:57pm.
...the restaurants start putting up "No Guns Allowed" signs up like they have done here in Georgia. They say they want to keep it family friendly and/or do not want to upset patrons. The thing about it is that I don't feel safe eating at a Waffle House (which has been robbed about a dozen times in the past month or so here), Taco Mac, or any other restaurant that bans guns. My business has gone else where.
Actually I Feel Safer
Submitted by packman on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 4:08pm.
when I see responsible citizens openly carry weapons. Spending the summer in Arizona, I recently was shopping at a Wal-Mart, and I noticed a fifty-something year old guy wearing a plaid shirt and blue jeans. But he was also packing some serious heat, looked like a Glock-type weapon in a holster, with additional magazines full of ammunition. He was just minding his own business, but clearly sending a message. I remember thinking, if there is someone around here with evil-intent, just the mere presence of individuals like this, openly demonstrating their constitutional right to bear arms....then obviously they just might think twice about committing a crime. I've often wondered if the years of stripping citizen's rights to openly carry weapons isn't responsible for some of the levels of crime we see in this country. I believe open-carry is a serious deterrent to crime, and for the most part those who participate are typically level-headed, responsible gun-owners
Let's hear it for that 2nd Amendment!.
"...Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread..." ~Thomas Jefferson
Open-carry in VA
Submitted by GregE on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 9:19pm.
I agree that it's a serious deterrent, provided a would-be criminal sees the person and is on the firearm side of the carrier to see it. Most will be deterred by that, no doubt.
There is also the possibility that if the criminal is not concerned about who gets hurt or killed in the process of his about-to-happen crime, the person open-carrying will be the first target.
The greatest amount of
Submitted by MikeB on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 9:36pm.
The greatest amount of deterrence will occur when the goblins start getting blown away and their families are told that they can't sue the citizen who provided the public service.