Letter to the Editor: Guns not a threat

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    Dear Editor,

    Bernie Machen, president of the University of Utah, is making a huge mistake trying to outlaw guns on campus.

    It’s time people started looking at the facts and quit succumbing to the anti-gun propaganda. The way to prevent crime is permitting guns on campus.

    In societies that permit individual possession of guns, the violent crime rate actually decreases. Take Florida for example; after passing laws in 1987 allowing citizens to legally carry concealed firearms, the violent crime rate dropped dramatically.

    According to the 1992 FBI Uniform Crime Report, between 1987 and 1992, Florida’s homicide rate dropped by 21 percent.

    Washington D.C., where guns have been banned since 1976, is now one of the murder capitols of the world.

    Concealed carry permit holders are not violent criminals. In fact, of the more than 204,000 permits Florida has issued since 1987, only 17 (.008%) have been revoked because of criminal conduct.

    Utah and other states with concealed carry laws report similar results. To obtain a concealed carry permit in Utah, a person undergoes a thorough background check, submits fingerprints to the State Department of Criminal Investigations, pays a fee and receives safety and firearm training.

    Any time a permit holder is accused of a crime, his permit is suspended until the case is resolved. A person living under such scrutiny from the government will not generally commit violent crime.

    Both Jefferson and Adams quoted Breccaria to sustain their belief that “laws that forbid the carrying of arms … serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

    Machen should reconsider his position and allow law-abiding citizens to freely exercise their rights.

    Darrin K. Johns

    Orem

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