The Trace is loosing its poop over the idea that President Elect Trump has made noise about enacting 50 state wide national concealed carry a reality.
The core of the article is that Maryland requires 16 hours of training, a live fire shoot, background check, and then the blessing of local government.
The biggest barrier to getting a concealed carry license in Maryland, though, is that even an applicant as clean as Mr. Rogers must still demonstrate a “good and substantial reason” for needing to carry a concealed weapon. A simple desire for “self defense” does not meet that standard.
Ah, yes. The “good and substantial reason” which was struck as a violation of the Second Amendment in Woollard v. Gallagher (but was overturned by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals). The result of this is that there are only about 14,000 active CCW permits in Maryland.
In an earlier Trace article, which was an exquisite masterpiece in the art of moral relativism, The Trace tried to prove that Chicago’s gun laws were effective because:
This is the graphic they used in the article.
Holy shit! Baltimore, Maryland, is No. 4 in the country for homicide rate, with more than double that of Chicago.
Suddenly the simple desire for “self defense” seems to meet the “good and substantial reason” standard for concealed carry.
Want a peak inside Baltimore? Watch this episode of Shock Trauma, filmed during the Baltimore riots at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Baltimore is just a wash in random killings, and it is getting worse, with 2016 having a record number of homicides.
I’ve always said, it is the places that I can’t carry that I want to carry the most.
Amidst all of this gang related violence and random crime, what is the big concern in Maryland?
The people of Maryland don’t want lots of people walking around the state while armed.
So Maryland is fighting concealed carry. The reason for this is the thesis of this Trace article. States with lower standards are going to allow people to carry concealed in states with higher standards.
If a man from Utah wanted to drive from Salt Lake City to Virginia Beach with a pistol strapped under his coat and a concealed carry permit from his state in his wallet, he could legally do so — just as long as he takes a 200 mile detour to avoid passing through Illinois, where his Utah concealed gun license won’t be recognized.
I have a Utah and (had) an Illinois CCW permit. I lived in Illinois when they passed their permitting law. it was made quite clear by the Democrat legislature why Illinois was going to require a 16 hour class. Because it would be a very expensive and time consuming burden for most working class people to meet the requirements and therefore the would be discouraged from carrying. I took the 16 hour course. It covered all the same material as the 4 hour Utah or Florida course, in 4 times as much time. It took an entire weekend and cost $500. I learned nothing from the State of Illinois that I hadn’t learned before.
Long and expensive training courses are the poll tax of concealed carry. It places an undo burden on a right and so discourages people, especially working class and poor people (who arguably live in neighborhoods where they might be in more need of CCW) from exercising that right. And just like the poll tax, it is dirty trick carried out by Democrat legislatures.
A concealed carrier from Miami, meanwhile, could drive straight up I-95 without any problems until he got to Maryland, which doesn’t accept any out-of-state concealed carry licenses whatsoever.
But opponents say a federal mandate would force states that exclude people they deem high risk to accept licenses issued in states with looser standards… Lindsay Nichols, a staff attorney with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, argues that the fact that state standards vary so widely gives lie to gun rights proponents drivers’ license analogy. She points out that states recognize each other’s drivers licenses because “states have almost uniformly adopted strong standards with regards to driving. They require drivers tests in a uniform manner in a way that doesn’t apply to guns.”
I grew up in Miami, and have a Florida CCW permit (gotta collect em all). The Miami-Dade MSA is more than twice the size of the Baltimore MSA, and every bit as “diverse.” You can’t tell me that carrying is Miami, or Atlanta, or Houston, or Dallas is going to be any different than carrying in Baltimore. Are the basic ruled of gun safety different in Texas?
No. What is different is the attitude of elected officials. The CCW permit holder from Miami or Dallas is not going to go to Baltimore and suddenly start shooting everyone he sees. Neither with the CCW permit holder from small town Indiana or Alabama, for that matter.
Virginia’s Attorney General, Democrat Mark Herring, has tried to clamp down on concealed carry reciprocity, briefly cancelling agreements with other states last December before being overruled by a deal* between Governor Terry McAuliffe, also a Democrat, and Republican state legislators.
*Putting Governor McAuliffe’s balls in a vice vis-a-vis his security detail.
What changed in Virginia that prompted a change in Virginia’s concealed carry reciprocity? Was there in influx of yokels from Appalachia shooting up the town? No, it was the election of a Clinton stooge to the State Capital. It was a purely partisan, political act, that did nothing to increase the safety of Virginians.
Should concealed carry be shoved down the throats of Blue states that are resistant to the idea?
Yes.
Why?
Because the Emancipation Proclamation, that’s why. Sometimes the President has to step and ensure the civil rights (especially the Constitutionally established civil rights) of American citizens, when the governments of the states refuse to recognize those rights.
I can just see the governors of New York, New Jersey, California, and the rest of the Blue holdouts, standing on the Statehouse steps like some anti-gun George Wallace, yelling “No concealed carry now, no concealed carry tomorrow, no concealed carry forever.”
And they will be forced to relent and the citizens of those states, and their visitors, will be all the safer for it.
I mentioned this in a comment on another site. One glaring fact that the antis miss is this: Concealed Carry Reciprocity already is in effect in all states and has been for many years. Thousands of people take advantage of the “privilege” every day and carry with impunity and without concern about violating any restrictive laws. This class of people is known as “criminals,” who will carry whether or not they are “allowed” to. What needs to happen is for concealed carry restrictions to be removed for law-abiding citizens so that they, too, can exercise their right to bear arms un-infringed.
I checked the math using the FBI UCR as they state. The Traces says that Chicago is at 16.4 per 100K, but I get 17.57 while I do get the 17.0 per 100K they mention for the City of Miami.
Not that The Trace would lie… noooooo.