Michigan CCW Record Proves Anti-Gunners Lied...Again

Michigan CCW Record Proves Anti-Gunners Lied...Again

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS213009+08-Jan-2008+PRN20080108

BELLEVUE, Wash., Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After six years of expanded
concealed carry in Michigan, the record speaks for itself: No shootouts at
traffic stops, a decline in firearms deaths and suicides, and violent crime is
down. Concealed carry works, and the hysteria pandered by anti-gun extremists
who opposed the law has been proven false.

"Michigan's armed private citizens have provided the evidence we knew would
come," said Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to
Keep and Bear Arms. "Lawful concealed carry reduces crime and does not result
in mass mayhem as the anti-self-defense crowd wanted us believe. Six years
ago, they pulled out all the stops, fabricated every dire prediction they
could imagine, and essentially told lies about concealed carry and passed them
off as truth, and too many in the media ate it up as if it were manna from
Heaven."

A recent story in the Detroit Free Press revealed that "the incidence of
violent crime in Michigan in the six years since the law went into effect has
been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall
incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, also has
declined."

"Anti-gun rights extremists established a track record for prevarication in
state after state where they rabidly fought right-to-carry statutes," observed
CCRKBA Executive Director Mark A. Taff, "and in case after case, including
Michigan, every one of their claims has been statistically refuted."

The newspaper quoted Woodhaven Police Chief Michael Martin, with the Michigan
Association of Chiefs of Police, who admitted that police fears about passage
of concealed carry were misplaced.

"Law enforcement has nothing to fear from legally-armed, law-abiding
citizens," Gottlieb said. "Their concerns were wrongly placed, and now
Michigan lawmen and women know what their colleagues in other states have
learned. Armed citizens make a difference, and in many cases are the true
first responders. Their presence can act as a deterrent.

"The experience in Michigan is like the experience in Texas, Ohio, Florida and
other states, and it begs the question, if anti-gun extremists were so
dishonest about this, what else have they been lying about?"


With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens
Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (www.ccrkba.org) is one of the
nation's premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the
Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active
lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun
rights activists in local communities throughout the United States.

SOURCE Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms