Recently, Minnesota became the 34th state to enact conceal-carry, or “shall issue” laws. Typically, these laws provide a statewide standard for who is and who is not allowed to carry a concealed handgun. Absent such laws, local authorities have greater discretion.
As the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports, the new law “calls on the state’s 87 sheriffs to give permits to law-abiding, mentally competent residents who are at least 21 years old. Before, police chiefs and sheriffs were in charge of granting or denying permits under a law that gave them wide discretion and called on the applicant to prove an occupational or personal safety need.” Interestingly enough, the law, which mandates a $100 permit fee and the completion of a safety class, which runs around $300, raises the bar for residents of some counties. Said the sheriff in one rural county, “It used to be if you said you had a DNR gun safety class when you were 12, that was good enough for us. That’s not going to fly anymore.”
Opponents of shall-issue permits display the same sense of unreality that pacifists do in foreign policy. C.S. Lewis wrote of the pacifists, during World War II,
Only liberal societies tolerate Pacifists. In the liberal society, the number of Pacifists will be either large enough to cripple the state as a belligerent, or not. If not, you have done nothing. If it is large enough, then you have handed over the state which does tolerate Pacifists to its totalitarian neighbor who does not. Pacifism of this kind is taking the straight road to a world in which there will be no Pacifists.
In a similar way, a prohibition against citizens protecting themselves against the inevitable rogue elements of society will make for a less safe society. (Unlike the international arena, police power is obvious and present in the states. But even the police can not be everywhere, nor can the prevent all crime.)
Even so, a loose group is gathering to oppose the new law, supposing that they can protect people by removing their ability to protect themselves. Rev. James Erlandson, co-chairman of the coalition, states, “We have a right to safe communities free from the threat of firearms.”
Pace Rev. Erlandson, what we ought to be free from is crime, and the record is clear: conceal carry laws probably do reduce crime. This has been the case in Texas, and in other states as well. Such laws may have reduced murders and severe assaults by 7 to 8 percent.
At a more philosophical level, the controversy comes down to a matter of trust. We need and have police and sheriff departments to do their important work. But is public policy going to work on the a