Blood Running In The Streets!

By now you may have heard of the nonsensical meanderings of the deranged minds referring to themselves as journalists.

They are loudly proclaiming that an infintesimal amount of Florda concealed weapon permit holders have been wanted for, or accused of crimes. But lets stop for a moment so that I may present the following:

No justification for a license is required; "self-defense" is sufficient.*

Then there's this from Codrea's War on Guns:

Hundreds of criminals were able to obtain concealed weapons permits in Florida because of loopholes, errors and miscommunication, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The "loophole"?

You have to go to the original hysterical article this one is based on to find it.

None of the people the media is shrieking about are convicted felons.

It doesn't matter if they were accused.

It doesn't matter if they were arrested, or how many times.

It doesn't matter if they were charged.

If they have not been convicted, even if a judge elected to "withhold" conviction based on a plea arrangement, you cannot then turn around and withhold their rights. These "authorized journalists" are bewailing nothing less than our inability to punish people who have not been legally proven guilty of felonies. And until that happens, regardless of circumstances, regardless of pleas, our system affords them a presumption of innocence, and places the burden on the state to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

If the government is not doing it's job, that's the part of the system you need to fix.

So the ABC headline "Fla. Gives Gun Permits to Felons" is a lie. That's right, a lie. Pleading guilty to a felony does not make you a felon. Being convicted of one does.

Even the original report admits, albeit it is buried deep in the story:

Convicted felons cannot get gun licenses under state and federal law.

No duh. Anybody starting to feel a bit...manipulated here?

And you'll notice in all the wailing and teeth-gnashing there are no claims of any resulting increase in homicides."

Yep. First off, no one really knows how many CWP's are active in Florida. Of the million and a half licenses issued, some holders have died, some moved away, some that moved away came back and were re-issued licenses after submitting a change of address to reflect their new location, etc, etc.

But to brass tacks. Of those million and a half, HUNDREDS of CWP holders may or may not have committed crimes. Think about that for a moment. What are the chances of profiling one and a half million people, checking back on them TWO decades later, and finding that only a mere "hundreds" had been charged with a crime? Sort of makes a damned fine case for the vast majority of licensees, doesn't it?

1996 was a banner year, though. 5 of the over 300,000 permit holders WERE convicted of a high misdemeanor, or felony.

But lets not continue to dwell on how upstanding these people have been. No, we should focus instead upon the lying journalists who believe that they've found a chink in our armor.

And let me be the first to tell you, it isn't pretty down here. Talk radio is overflowing with angry retorts to the article in question, and the single biggest thing that may come out of this free-for-all is the fact that by the time it's blown over, a great many of us will have been drawn closer together as we circle the wagons.

*So what about their hilarious statement that "self-defense is no justification for obtaining a permit."?

Seems like a damned fine justification, doesn't it????

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