Rep. Cliff Stearns: Concealed Carry Permits Are Life Savers

Florida District 6 US House Representative Cliff Stearns wrote an excellent piece titled Concealed Carry Permits Are Life Savers:

. . . Allowing law-abiding people to arm themselves offers more than piece of mind for those individuals -- it pays off for everybody through lower crime rates. Statistics from the FBI’s Uniformed Crime Report of 2007 show that states with right-to-carry laws have a 30% lower homicide rate, 46% lower robbery, and 12% lower aggravated assault rate and a 22% lower overall violent crime rate than do states without such laws. That is why more and more states have passed right-to-carry laws over the past decade . . .

In a related story, Julie Parker, 33 who shot an employee of Texas Components with an arrow was held off by a couple of CCW permit holders (also employees) until police arrived:

. . . Witnesses said other employees of the business pulled out their own pistols and held the woman at bay until police arrived . . .

Yet more evidence that when seconds count, the Police are minutes away. I have not seen any report on how many arrows she was carrying with her. Who knows how many lives these two concerned citizens saved by being prepared & choosing to act at a critical time. They may have saved one or even dozens of lives. Luckily we'll never know since she was stopped before we could find out.