Gun Owners Are Law Abiding? Libs Plead "Say it Ain't So"

Michigan anti-gunners predicted disaster when the Legislature permitted ordinary citizens to carry concealed pistols.

You know the typical catch-phrases they use. "Blood flowing in the streets." "Back to the lawless wild West." "Legalized murder." Ad nauseum.

They predicted the same thing when the Castle Doctrine went into effect last year.

What most libs don't know, or won't acknowledge, is that Michigan tracks CPL-holder crime statistics and make the reports available to everyone online at the State Police website. It turns out that Michigan CPL holders are extremely law-abiding - especially compared to the rest of the population.

As of the last report, there were well over 100,000 CPL-holders in Michigan. This accounts for over 1% of the total population and over 3% of the adult, non-institutionalized population.

The report includes all crimes that CPL holders were charged with during the year, including crimes that have no connection to firearms at all.

CPL holders, for the entire year, were charged with a total of 548 crimes. Of those, there were only 175 convictions. There were 101 instances of brandishing or using the pistol total. 148 crimes did NOT involve the use of a firearm.

What's this mean?

Even if we assume convictions on all the pending crimes that involved brandishing or using the pistol, there are only about 100 gun crimes per 100,000 CPL holders. This means that more than 99.9% of CPL holders committed NO GUN CRIMES AT ALL for the last year that data has been compiled.

CPL holders don't spill blood all over the streets - and they have a better law abiding record than overall law enforcement in this state. I'm not saying cops are dirty. I am saying that there are a higher percentage of cops convicted of (both firearm and non-firearm) crimes than CPL holders.

The stats on the Castle Doctrine are almost as devastating to lib arguments. The Detroit Free Press, of all publications, published an article on the first anniversary of the Castle Doctrine legislation. Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said:

Of course, you're going to get a case once in a while where someone's out waving a gun or something, but overall, most people are responsible.

And that's as bad as it got! From the Free Press!

Sheriff Hackel continued explaining that the law was very basic - it's about self-defense:

I get asked all the time: 'What does self-defense mean?' Every case is going to be reviewed individually by police agencies and prosecutors. It boils down to the totality of circumstances: Do they feel their life is in imminent jeopardy?

It's the same level that we use in guidelines for police to use force.

While the libs rely on scare tactics, all the evidence shows that Michigan CPL holders, and gun owners in general, are law-abiding men and women.

Click here to view the latest report (period ending June 2006) from the Michigan State Police website.