BELLEVUE, Wash., Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After six years of expanded concealed carry in Michigan, the record speaks for itself: No shootouts at traffic stops, a decline in firearms deaths and suicides, and violent crime is down. Concealed carry works, and the hysteria pandered by anti-gun extremists who opposed the law has been proven false.
"Michigan's armed private citizens have provided the evidence we knew would come," said Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. "Lawful concealed carry reduces crime and does not result in mass mayhem as the anti-self-defense crowd wanted us believe. Six years ago, they pulled out all the stops, fabricated every dire prediction they could imagine, and essentially told lies about concealed carry and passed them off as truth, and too many in the media ate it up as if it were manna from Heaven."
A recent story in the Detroit Free Press revealed that "the incidence of violent crime in Michigan in the six years since the law went into effect has been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, also has declined."
"Anti-gun rights extremists established a track record for prevarication in state after state where they rabidly fought right-to-carry statutes," observed CCRKBA Executive Director Mark A. Taff, "and in case after case, including Michigan, every one of their claims has been statistically refuted."
The newspaper quoted Woodhaven Police Chief Michael Martin, with the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, who admitted that police fears about passage of concealed carry were misplaced.
"Law enforcement has nothing to fear from legally-armed, law-abiding citizens," Gottlieb said. "Their concerns were wrongly placed, and now Michigan lawmen and women know what their colleagues in other states have learned. Armed citizens make a difference, and in many cases are the true first responders. Their presence can act as a deterrent.
"The experience in Michigan is like the experience in Texas, Ohio, Florida and other states, and it begs the question, if anti-gun extremists were so dishonest about this, what else have they been lying about?"
With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (http://www.ccrkba.org/) is one of the nation's premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States.
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
