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.
This is an ongoing miniseries. I just checked, and the latest installment is here. Nothing has changed in my assessment. This is still "a tale told by [idiots], full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
5 comments:
Its time we realized that the press has a vested interest in disarming law abiding citizens. Murder, mayhem, and high crime make ratings and sell newspapers.
The article is written, I think, from the Massachusetts perspective. In our fair Commonwealth, a CCW may be denied or revoked by the issuing authority at will, for whatever reason he chooses. Not much of a right here.
But, I believe that pleading guilty (or N.C.) to a felony carries (in most states) the same weight as having been convicted of it.
My comment at Say Uncle was made as though the pretend news article were true. If it were true it would be the best argument I could think of for rescinding every gun control regulation and/or law on the books. Here it is.
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I have to say, “So what?”. Yeah, that’s right, so what? The fact that the rate of violent crime in Florida began falling almost immediately after the enactment of concealed carry laws proves what gun rights advocates have always said. Firearms in the hands of the law abiding does more to stop the criminal than any law. Even criminals with a permit to carry must have received the message that a bad actor could get his ass waxed by granny if he didn’t mend his ways.
The proof, even though some prohibited people slipped through the system, the crime rate still fell. And these prohibited persons would have been armed anyway, whether or not they had a permit. The only difference in then and now is that now they know they may not be the only ones in any given location that is armed.
So back to my original question. So what?
The article is getting shredded on Topix.net;
http://www.topix.net/forum/guns/T98ARL4CIIRGR4HL3
Of course there are plenty of trolls and anti's getting shredded as well.
I particularly like this line from the Brady Bunch:
"Governments are neither big enough nor efficient enough to catch mistakes - and that is why so-called ‘shall issue’ laws like Florida’s are a bad idea."
So according to them, "Shall Issue" might be an option--if we have a bigger, more "efficient" government.
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