Initially, I said I was never going to do this. However, after due consideration, I changed my mind. I now have an official Concealed Weapon or Firearm License, legally issued by the State of Florida.
You will forgive me for fuzzing out the personal/revealing information, of course. So what changed my mind? First, I have the opportunity at the moment, and, in a few months, I would be losing that opportunity for a few years. Florida is a "shall-issue" state – if you ask for a license, pay your relatively small fee (a little over a hundred dollars, which includes the processing and fingerprinting), and pass your FBI background check, they have to give you a license. Kalifornistan, on the other hand, has its CCW system set up on a county-by-county system – each individual sheriff of each individual county sets the standards for who gets a license and who does not. Unfortunately, the sheriff of the county I will be moving into does not view self-preservation, defense of person or family, or other similar concepts sufficient reasoning for issuing a CCW license. For him to even consider your application, you have to regularly handle large amounts of money (cash or valuables), be a member of an at-risk profession (doctors and pharmacists are big ones, for some reason), own a business (it seems quite illogical that the sheriff would consider defense of a business to be a more valid reason than defense of person and family), or other such similar concepts. So, I got a license when I could. Second, to me, it seemed like a "better to have than not" situation – no real explanation needed there. Third, I am really, really hoping that the Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Bill passes. Something tells me that Kalifornistan would find some way of snaking out from underneath it, but it would be a start in the right direction of bolstering one of our most-frequently assaulted Constitutional rights.
Take a look at some of the statistics on that page, by the by… I will post the more compelling (and more concerning, at least for those who would deprive you of the ability to adequately defend yourself) ones here, to save you the trouble of clicking:
Citizens with carry permits are more law-abiding than the general public. Only 0.01% of nearly 1.2 million permits issued by Florida have been revoked because of firearm crimes by permit holders. Similarly low percentages of permits have been revoked in Texas, Virginia, and other RTC states that keep such statistics. [This statistic is from data gathered from the Florida Department of State, by the by.]
States with RTC laws have lower violent crime rates. On average, 22% lower total violent crime, 30% lower murder, 46% lower robbery, and 12% lower aggravated assault, compared to the rest of the country. The seven states with the lowest violent crime rates are RTC states. (Data: FBI.)
Crime declines in states with RTC laws. Since adopting RTC in 1987, Florida’s total violent crime and murder rates have dropped 32% and 58%, respectively. Texas’ violent crime and murder rates have dropped 20% and 31%, respectively, since its 1996 RTC law. (Data: FBI.)
Of course, most people would like to hide these statistics from you… and having a majored in a degree that effectively specializes in probability and statistics, I know full well how misleading well-placed numbers can be. But deterrence is deterrence, and when no one knows who is armed and who is not, would anyone really contemplate assaulting/robbing/mugging/raping another person?
And, no, I do not believe in that go-se that CCW permits are nothing more than a way of "tagging" people who own firearms for a future crackdown on those tools, nor do I believe the conspiracy theory that the FBI background checks are the same. I believe that both are unnecessary encumberances on what is a Constitutional right, and what should be upheld as such… but sometimes you have to play the system. After all, an intimate knowledge of the system allows people to change it, and people expressing their rights (such as applying for and maintaining a permit allowing you to carry concealed firearms) further expresses to the government just how important those rights are to the people.
Culture of apathy be damned… People need to start standing up for them and theirs – no one else is going to.
management not responsible for loose analogies
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