Guns In Hands of Good People Reduces Crime

The Sunshine State became the 26th state to allow the concealed carry of weapons without a permit when Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., signed SB480 into law on April 3.

Although Democrats and legacy media predicted doom and gloom, statistics suggest it was the right move.

Permitless carry, also known as constitutional carry, allows anyone who can legally purchase a firearm to carry it without the necessity of obtaining a government permit or license.

The editorial board of the Miami Herald wished Florida "good luck out there" now that there was no need for a concealed carry permit.

They observed that now-optional concealed carry permit applications had "fallen by about 64%" from the same period a year earlier, "and so have applications for gun safety classes."

However, Bearing Arms editor Cam Edwards noted that "we’ve also seen recent reports that …' introductory shooting classes are booked up months'" in advance.

Giffords Courage, an anti-gun organization, claimed that DeSantis signed the bill into law in secret.

"Governor DeSantis just signed permitless carry into law behind closed doors, probably because he knows it’s dangerous & unpopular," Giffords said. "This bill was rushed through the legislature — and DeSantis signed it quietly with the NRA’s support and against Floridians’ wishes."

Democratic Florida State Reps. Christine Hunschofsky and Anna Eskamani made the exact same argument: That the law was secretly signed because it was unpopular.

Actually DeSantis was photographed signing the bill surrounded by its supporters and sponsors. And it’s obviously popular — it was approved by a majority of Florida’s lawmakers, and a majority of the states also have permitless carry laws.

The White House thought it inappropriate that the bill was signed days after the March 27 Nashville Covent School shooting by a young emotionally disturbed woman who identified as a male.

"It is shameful that so soon after another tragic school shooting, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a permitless concealed carry bill behind closed doors, which eliminates the need to get a license to carry a concealed weapon," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre posted to Twitter/X.

"This is the opposite of commonsense gun safety. The people of Florida — who have paid a steep price for state and Congressional inaction on guns from Parkland to Pulse Nightclub to Pine Hills — deserve better."

But contrary to all the hand-wringing and pearl-clutching from the left, statistics suggest that permitless carry actually makes the state safer.

The Federalist reported that Florida’s largest cities experienced "a significant decrease in violent crimes, including shootings." Those cities include:

—Jacksonville, where homicides dropped by six percent; and,

—Miami, which saw, "the fewest number of killings ever recorded."

Ohio saw a similar reduction in firearm-related violent crime after they approved their own permitless carry law.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost asked the Center for Justice Research at Bowling Green University to conduct a study on violent crime since June 13, 2022, when their permitless carry law went into effect.

He asked for the study in the blind, not knowing what the results might be. Much like the Florida study, it found that gun-related crime in six of the state’s eight largest cities declined. The most significant reductions were:

—Parma, where gun-related crime fell 22%; and,

—Akron and Toledo, which each saw 18% reductions.

Former National Rifle Association CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre famously observed that “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

Gun control proponents will counter that we have the police for that very purpose — to provide armed protection. But they can’t be everywhere at once, giving rise to the adage, "when seconds count, the police are only minutes away."

The Justice Department’s report on the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, suggests that sometimes when seconds count, the police are hours from responding.

And sometimes they never respond.

There’s a heartbreaking 911 call made by a woman in 2012 who reported that her violent ex-boyfriend was breaking into her home; the dispatcher said she had no one to send.

Twenty-three of Josephine County, Oregon’s 29 deputies were laid off because of budget reductions, and the remaining six had their shifts reduced to eight hours, so the Sheriff’s Department was closed on the weekends. The victim was choked, beaten and raped on a Saturday night.

It’s not about the gun. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that guns are used defensively between 500,000 and 3 million times in the United States each year.

Similarly, Abel was killed by an evil man with a rock.

Goliath was killed by a good man with a rock.

It’s not about the rock.

And Florida is proof that more guns in the hands of good people reduces crime.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.