Rally to Celebrate One Year of Shall-Issue Gun Permits

Civil rights supporters will rally on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol on April 28 at noon to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Minnesota Citizens Personal Protection Act, better known as the "MCPPA."

The rally, sponsored by Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance (GOCRA) and its Concealed Carry Reform Now (CCRN) division, will feature speeches from Rep. Lynda Boudreau (R-Faribault) and Sen. Pat Pariseau (R-Farmington), authors of the House and Senate versions of the bill that became law one year ago.

The law, which Governor Tim Pawlenty signed on April 28, 2003, removed arbitrary approval or denial of pistol carry permits by law enforcement officials, instead requiring Minnesota county sheriffs to issue permits to competent, law-abiding adults upon successful completion of a training course and background check.

Although opponents predicted that passage would lead to widespread violence and bloodshed, there hasn't been a single case reported of a permit holder misusing a gun in public.

This strikes me as a really, really good idea. One of the image problems that gun owners have, especially when defending their rights for concealed carry and similar issues, is low public visibility of "good" gun owners. Crimes with guns get on the news all the time; law-abiding gun owners just don't get noticed, except sometimes as hunters, or when the news media finds the least-educated and least-articulate gun owner they can to put on the news as an "alternative viewpoint".

Just getting out in a group and saying, in effect, "We are gun owners. We're here, and we're not causing any problems. Sometimes we're even carrying concealed in public, and we're not causing any problems then either." It doesn't seem like much, but it can be a potent reminder.