commentaries

"The assertion that protecting yourself and your family should be seen as a privilege is laughable"----- exactly. Nobody, no politician, no government will ever prevent me from defending my family by any means necessary. I pity the families of those men(?) who refuse to raise a hand to defend their loved ones.

Real men do not need a gun or the threat of violence in order to "defend their loved ones." It really is not that difficult to use common sense, be prepared, and stay safe. I won't bore everyone with statistics, just a simple anecdote. A CT teacher DID own guns...they were used to kill her and 24 other people, including 20 children. I am positive that the "Founding Fathers" would be the first to modify the 2nd Amendment if they knew what was happening. The "West" has been tamed. Enough already!

Sorry, utopians. I refuse to let my family become sitting ducks.

I love how some folks want to claim causation(permit to carry has made Minnesotans safer because crime overall has decreased)that doesn't exist to disprove someone else's plausible correlation about permit holders who have committed crimes. It's almost as bad as the "good guys" vs the "bad guys" analogy y'all keep using. In reality, if 1,159 permit holders were charged with a crime, that's an awful lot of "good guys" who turned out to be "bad guys" and we just gave guns to them!

Awblnew said, "In reality, if 1,159 permit holders were charged with a crime, that's an awful lot of "good guys" who turned out to be "bad guys" and we just gave guns to them!" Keep in mind that that number is over a period of ten years. As the article states, there were a total of 231 reported crimes committed by over 91,000 permit holders in 2011. The nearest Minnesota city with a comprable population is Duluth with a population of about 86,000. In 2011, the FBI shows that 8957 serious crimes were committed in Duluth. That to me seems to be a clear indication that permit holders behave much more responsibly than the general public.

Conceal and Carry fosters an illusion that arming oneself makes one safer. People who buy guns to protect themselves and family are more likely to shoot themselves or someone in their family - or another family member will-- than actually use a gun in self defense.

Farcical said, "Real men do not need a gun or the threat of violence in order to "defend their loved ones." It really is not that difficult to use common sense, be prepared, and stay safe." With all due respect, everyone here makes a decision as to how they are going to protect themselves and their loved ones. When you use the term shown above, you seem to imply that permit holders go out and take stupid risks because they can always fall back on being armed. On the contrary, permit holders tend to be much more thoughtful of potential risks since carrying a firearm for self defense also carries with it great responsibility which they take quite seriously. Sometimes real men, and women for that matter do need a gun to defend their loved ones since there are people out there that dont care who they hurt. If that werent the case, police officers wouldnt need to carry firearms either.

Yes, crime has gone down because people carry. But the answer isn't to carry a handgun. The simple truth is that everyone, well, almost everyone, has AND CARRIES a cell phone. THAT is why the crime numbers are down.

Island3 says, "Yes, crime has gone down because people carry. But the answer isn't to carry a handgun. The simple truth is that everyone, well, almost everyone, has AND CARRIES a cell phone. THAT is why the crime numbers are down." While I'm sure that quick reliable communications provided by cell phones has some sort of effect on crime, I'm afraid I can't agree with your assertion that it is the cause of a falling crime rate. If that we're the case, shouldn't crime rates be falling more rapidly in the cities where cell service is more reliable? On a larger scale, if that we're the case, then lets look at England. Firearms there are highly restricted, and there call system is likely comparable to the US, yet there crime rates are rising as opposed to the US crime rates falling steadily for the past twenty years.

"Conceal and Carry fosters an illusion that arming oneself makes one safer. People who buy guns to protect themselves and family are more likely to shoot themselves or someone in their family - or another family member will-- than actually use a gun in self defense." - Nonsense. The statistics show you are wrong and you are perpetuating a lie.