After the attacks on Paris, I turned to Bitter and said “I’ll bet this will see another surge in gun sales, and particularly a surge in people applying for concealed carry licenses.” Sure enough, western Pennsylvania sheriffs departments are reporting they are overwhelmed by the number of new applicants:
Requests for licenses to carry concealed handguns jumped sharply in some Western Pennsylvania counties Monday and Tuesday, a reaction some sheriffs’ offices said they have come to expect in the days after mass shootings and terrorist attacks.
And this kind of poll is the only kind that counts. Regardless of what Bloomberg wants to trick people into believing, when Americans become concerned they may come under attack, they arm themselves.
I first got my LTC in 2002, less than a year after 9/11, and it was 9/11 that convinced me to pull the trigger, so to speak. I figured they’d eventually try something here like they did later in Mumbai, Kenya, and now Paris.
It’s a great thing that the number of applications is jumping, but, doesn’t 18 Pa.C.S. 6111(g) prohibit the sheriffs from discussing anything related to the the information collected?
Information about individual applications, yes. Information about the number of applications, no. That’s public information.
In addition to more people getting permits, I’m betting there are a lot of people in the same situation as me: they’ve had a permit for a number of years, but never or very rarely carried, because it was against their employer’s rules, or too inconvenient, or any number of other excuses. I know I can’t be the only one who has re-evaluated those choices, and changed their habits because of this wake-up call.
“Carry your gun. It’s a lighter burden than regret.” -Breda
I completely agree with you, Ken. I taught many a class where the folks said they wanted the option but rarely carry. However, I have met many people who did carry all the time, everywhere. At work, in church, even in post office. Some of those ladies were school teachers, one man a postal worker, another a doctor in a gun free hospital in Darby PA> (You can look him up)
When I lived in PA I carried everyday. I worked for the company 30+ years, in all that time they never searched me, my vehicle or my briefcase. NOR would I have allowed it.