NOREEN: Concealed-carry permits haven't caused problems
Since 2007, the number of concealed-carry permits in El Paso County has more than doubled, but there has not been a corresponding jump in gun violence by the permit holders.
You can believe whatever you want, but at some point it comes down to results, and nothing suggests that life here has become more dangerous because of concealed-carry permits.
There are 16,772 citizens in El Paso County who have permits to carry a concealed handgun.
In 2010, just six people had their permits revoked, and Sheriff Terry Maketa said not a single permit holder was arrested in any violent case.
Depending upon which side of the gun rights debate someone resides, Maketa’s numbers could be used to buttress any position.
You know: One side would say the sheriff doesn’t revoke many concealed-carry permits because he loves people who love guns. The other side would say that as a class, those who apply for a concealed-carry permit (see my blog) are a law-abiding lot, willing to undergo a background check, gun safety course, fingerprinting and the $60 fee for a five-year permit.
“They’re not out committing homicides,” Maketa said Tuesday.
Of the six permits revoked last year, Maketa said, five involved people who were drunk and one had to do with “an individual who was committed for a mental health evaluation.”
Most often, Maketa said, problems involve a permit holder who is drunk and has the gun in his car, but has not fired it.
Typically, the sheriff said, a person’s permit is suspended when a criminal charge is filed and the permit may be revoked “pending the outcome of the criminal case.”
Maketa said on Monday, a citizen appealed a sheriff’s staff recommendation that his permit be revoked, and Maketa allowed the man to keep his permit. Although the man did not shoot at or threaten anyone, Maketa said “he confronted some teenagers alongside of his house” and soon found himself talking to police.
“Is this guy a threat to the community? That’s what it boils down to,” he said. The man kept his permit.
When El Paso County’s number of concealed-carry permits jumped several years ago, some people (including a certain columnist) worried that increasing the number of guns in cars would lead to more road rage and other violence.
It hasn’t happened.
Maketa said the number of permits — including many more for women — “has been climbing and I tie that to the political climate at the national level.”
A couple of years ago permit holders were surveyed.
“It was surprising how little of the time they have it, and seldom is it on their person,” Maketa said. “It’s not a gun-crazed group.”
The concealed-carry system seems to be working.
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