Greetings:
OK - I live in Texas. Have been for, oh, a really long time now. Everyone over 21 that is a Republican and is a Conservative or Orthodox Jew has a CHL (Concealed Handgun License). And most other Conservative Republicans over 21 in Texas have one as well. When that law went into effect the violet crime rate here in major cities dropped about 25% and went up in the the more liberal adjacent states up north. Meaning that the bad guys got the heck out of there and went up there. It never was very high out in the rural areas. Most every one out there carried openly anyway. :)
BUT, that did not stop the crazies and weirdos from getting guns because the Feds and Local Smokies could not get their act together and sync up their computers so that they could snag a crazy or weirdo at the gun shop when that person was shopping. Like that punk in Florida! DANG!! All of the flags went up and STILL they did not get him. Now the kids down there want more laws. We have enough laws on the books if someone would just enforce what is already there.
BTW, the AR-15 started out as the
AR-5 and was initially a bolt-action, survival rifle in .22 Hornet caliber that was packed with the Air Force pilots. Subsequently they came up with the AR-7 which was a .22 long rifle version which was the semi-auto version that had a 7-shot clip that they could still pack with the bomber crews. The
AR-10 was an upgrade to the 7.62mm semi-auto, version of the AR-5 but manufactured by Armalite and the
AR-15 was an upgrade of the AR-10 but manufactured by Colt in a .223 mm caliber. Now, the AR-15 was NOT intended to be an assault rifle. Period! End of discussion. It was a survival and/or a hunting rifle that allows a hunter a quick second or third shot if the first on misses - which, believe it or not, usually happens in thick woods. And a .223 is not much of a hunting rifle for big-game. the 7.62mm (about a .308 caliber) is a much better rifle for hunting deer or big game.
Anyway, this is not about a national background check not working nor about the AR series of rifles, it is about a national CHL permit not working. It seems that there is a bill going through the House of Representative (that actually passed and has now gone to the Senate) that wants to allow anyone who has a CHL in one state to be allowed to carry in another state. Horse Hockey!! Yes, I want reciprocity when I go to Louisiana or Arizona BUT what I don't want is some Yah-hoo from a state that has absolutely NO restrictions on a CHL to come to Texas and have a CHL over here. You see, there are some states that will give out a CHL and they do not have to know the law, do not have to show any kind of knowledge of pistol nor anything else and they will just hand over a CHL to them.
Here? Hell! We have to know the law and pass a course on handgun carry complete with how well can we shoot the damned thing. If you can't hit a bull in the butt at 15 yards you don't get a license. (Think about it - 15 yards is 45 feet and nobody has a room that big.) OTOH, a bull's hinney is just about as big as the target at which we were shooting at that time which was the silhouette of a person. Short story about my first class taught by a retired military police Sgt who had then spent 20+ years with the Dallas Police Dept and retire there as well;
It seems that he had never been involved in a "shoot out" until he had been on the DPF for about 10 years or so and he had always carried his trusty 38-Special with "hot" loads and he could hit the 10-ring bulls-eye on the range 10-out-of-10 times; left-handed or right-handed, shoulder-high or hip-high. Anyway, he got into a shoot-out at a 7-11 on Zangs Blvd in Dallas with some punk with him about half-way across the store and the punk at the other end, probably 20 or 25 feet (not yards) away. He fired all six shots, reloaded, fired six more and finally hit the guy with the 12th shot. As he said in class, it's a LOT different when the other guy is shooting back. Somehow you just can't seem to get you aim just right. After that he traded in his trusty six-gun for a 16-round-magazine 9mm Glock semi-automatic where he could carry a few extra magazines on his belt. Never can have too much ammo the next time.
Another thing that he pointed out; only about 5% of the police ever are ever involved in a "shoot-out" like that and of the 5% only about 5% of those (meaning a really small percentage) ever actually kill another person. And of that small percentage, about 95% of those retire (or commit suicide) within the next 12 months. The people that the police departments hire are not the "Dirty Harry" kind of people. They are usually caring, non-homicidal kind of cops who go home to the families at night. Much like the "Blue Bloods" kind of folks that you see on TV rather than the "Good Fellows" kind of cops and robbers.
Finally - bottom line: It used to cost almost $400 to get a four-year CHL permit in Texas. Now it is down to about $75 but if you belong to a license NRA club and you are NRA member and have a DD-214 showing that you are a true Veteran then you can usually get it down to about $25 for a five-year license. That is about right. BUT, I still don't want any of those 1-D-10-T folks coming down here and screwing things up for the locals. Now, if the folks in DC want to do things right they will set up a REAL commission that will follow the state laws of either Texas of Florida and make it a National law for getting a CHL that is valid in any state. Much like I used to get a International driver's license that was valid in France, the UK, Madagascar or in the USA. It wasn't hard - I just needed to take a standard test in Madagascar, have a valid passport from the USA, a valid driver's license from the USA and they gave my my International license. Just a thought...
jco
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