The VPC loses any semblence of credibility with this article:
Critics, however, say the NRA pressures lawmakers to ignore the problem.
“The people who are intimately familiar with these laws, the people at the NRA, they know exactly what’s going on,” said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the nonprofit Violence Policy Center. Florida’s gun lobby and the program’s administrators “know they’re permitting some bad people, but they don’t want the general public to know that.”
If criminals records are imcomplete such that some felons are getting permitted, isn’t that the government’s problem rather than lawful permit holders? Last I checked, the NRA, much to dismay of many of its members, was supporting the bill to improve the NICS system, which would fix a lot of these problems. Sorry Kristen Rand, but you’re a liar.
UPDATE: The media apparently doesn’t agree with due process, and many of the folks discussed here were never actually convicted, which means they aren’t felons at all. So it would seem the VPC aren’t the only ones who are liars.
Let’s just pretend the lie the reporter and the VPC are pushing is true.
I have to say, “So what?â€. Yeah, that’s right, so what? The fact that the rate of violent crime in Florida began falling almost immediately after the enactment of concealed carry laws proves what gun rights advocates have always said. Firearms in the hands of the law abiding does more to stop the criminal than any law. Even criminals with a permit to carry must have received the message that a bad actor could get his ass waxed by granny if he didn’t mend his ways.
The proof, even though some prohibited people slipped through the system, the crime rate still fell. And these prohibited persons would have been armed anyway, whether or not they had a permit. The only difference in then and now is that now they know they may not be the only ones in any given location that is armed.
So back to my original question. So what?