About 1985 one county in Florida was experiencing an unbelievable increase in the number of rapes being committed. In repsonse to the public outcry, the sheriff initiated a program where 200 women were given gun safety classes and issued carry permits. None of the women in the program were every assaulted, but the number of rapes dropped by something like 98% after the news media was all over the story. Most people think that rapists were scared off by the possibility of being shot by a victim.
This experiment prompted the Florida legislature in 1987 to enact concealed carry reform introducing the "shall issue" concept, where local LEOs had no say in whether the permit was issued. Many states had concealed carry, but many if not most were "may issue" meaning that you had to prove a need to be armed and you had to have the approval of local cops.
After the violent crime rate in Florida tumbled despite the dire predictions from the gun grabbers about "blood in the streets," other states began enacting similar laws, changing may issue into shall issue or instituting concealed carry for the first time.
Critics have been proven wrong about concealed carry in everyu instance and yet they trot out the same, tired, old, disproven lies everytime another state legislature takes up the issue. I think about 30 states are now shall issue and only 3-4 flatly deny concealed carry. The rest are descretionary (may issue).
This is great progress, but we need to get all 50 states on board with shall issue and we need nationwide reciprocity so that we can freely travel with our self-defense firearms.
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