Number of Texans Seeking Gun Permits Doubles

Josey1

Number of Texans Seeking Gun Permits DoublesThere's bad news in Texas for the gun grabbers - Texans are grabbing guns for themselves.Record numbers of Texans are reaching for their shooting irons, with gun sales and applications for concealed weapons permits skyrocketing since September 11, state officials say.Applications for such permits have jumped from a weekly average of 1,060 in the month prior to Sept. 11 to over 2,300 last week, and almost 2,900 in the week ending Oct. 27, the Texas Department of Public Safety told Reuters news agency.And Texans aren't alone in arming themselves. All across the nation, sales of guns and knives are booming."People don't know what's going to happen," Ken Goldberg, owner of DFW Gun Range, one of Dallas' biggest gun shops, told Reuters. "They're going with the flow, creating a sense of security around themselves to replace the one that's shattered." That doesn't make the gun-grabbing fanatics happy."It's not really a rational response," sniffed Brendan Daly of the Washington-based Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence."We understand that at times of crisis people want to have a sense of control. But they're more likely to shoot someone they know by accident than use the gun against a criminal or even a terrorist," Daly told Reuters, blithely ignoring studies that show that every week some 50,000 Americans use firearms to defend themselves or their families against crime, as NewsMax.com reported on May 25, 2000.At the DFW Gun Range, Goldberg said his concealed handgun training courses for applicants have gone from about 20 students a week to between 35 and 40 people a week.Over 218,000 Texans out of the state's 21 million residents were licensed to carry a concealed handgun as of Oct. 1, officials said. According to George Washington University law professor Bob Cottrol, an expert on the politics of gun control, Texas is just one of the states that allow concealed handguns. He says that more than 30 states have legalized concealed handguns. http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2001/11/8/214920