A couple more comments for San Antonians

I just couldn't resist posting just a couple more things in response to some of the comments on the page linked in my last post:

"Law enforcement officers are trained to respond to volatile and violent situations where the average CHL has none of that training and are more able to make mistakes and cause unnecessary injuries to others."

Are you sure about that? Have you educated yourself on the training that a CHL applicant goes through and what material it covers, from shooting techniques to ethics, from legal implications to situational decision-making?

As for law enforcement being less prone to make mistakes and cause unnecessary injuries, I'd challenge you to read Overkill by Radley Balko, formerly of the Cato Institute, who found a disturbing trend of police killing innocent people my mistake. I'd also challenge you to come up with one incident of a lawfully-carrying citizen trying to defuse a violent situation and shooting an innocent by mistake. Concealed-carry supporters can point to several instances where the situation was ended successfully, but I have yet to see any press on a situation where Joe CHL Holder shot a bystander by accident (and don't you think the media would inundate us with that story, should it happen?).

And:

"BUT MANY PEOPLE DON'T HAVE MUCH SELF-RESTRAINT. AND NO CLASS OR COURSE IS GOING TO CHANGE THAT.
...
THERE ARE TOO MANY ANGRY PEOPLE WITH ITCHY TRIGGER FINGERS (GOOD AND BAD)
...
THE FIRST TIME JOHN Q. PUBLIC FEELS INTIMIDATED BY THE BIG TATTOOED GUY AT THE VALERO,... AND BAM, SOMEONE DIES...
...
THE REASON THAT CARRYING GUNS WAS RESTRICTED IN THE FIRST PLACE IS BECAUSE PEOPLE AREN'T RESPONSIBLE, GENERALLY SPEAKING."

That may be your gut instinct, and that of many of the other posters here, but the empirical evidence over the last 20 years in the 40 states who have enacted shall-issue concealed-carry laws says different. Florida was the first state to do so, in 1987, and through the first decade out of 400,000 permit holders, there was exactly ONE murder conviction. Here in Texas the arrest rate for CHL holders has been 2/3 LESS than the rate for the general population.

The millions of citizens around the country who have been legally carrying concealed for two decades (260,000 in Texas last year) WITHOUT the predicted Wild West/O.K. Corral bloodbaths shows that this isn't some new idea that should scare people. CHL holders have proven themselves over the years to be sensible, law-abiding, and - most important of all - willing to take personal responsibility for the safety of their families and the strangers around them.