TexasCHLforum.com

The stats are, unpleasantly, included on a link titled "brady_statistics": http://publicsafety.utah.gov/bci/brady_statistics.html.

WildBill wrote:I would think that even though the Utah BCI doesn't publish this statistic, the Utah Legislators would be privy to that information.

Yep; I agree.

I just took a quick look at the numbers from BCI, and of the 127,000 licenses the "News 8" article said had been issued by Utah, rougly 20,000 were renewals, or about 16%; the total number of new permits was 107,000 over the past 18 months from June 2009 through December 31, 2010. Of interest is that the total number of license holders grew by only 100,660 during the same period, so licenses are expiring and not being renewed at a very rapid rate, as well (to the tune of over 21%).

Hm. Not that I'm distrusting them, but WFAA "News 8" doesn't cite its source(s) for the information, and that's not something that Utah's BCI normally reports in their CFP statistics. It would be good to know where to find the original data.

Here's a link to an article at TexasFirearmsCoalition.com that talks about the bill.

My quick take on it is this: it's completely unnecessary legislation. It is a solution in search of a problem. I think the bottom-line question is, why would we want to pass a bill that constrains or further limits 2A rights in any way whatsoever if there's no strong reason for that constraint or limitation?

And too, there's the disturbing origin of this bill, as well as its supporters:

"A lot of states are concerned with what Utah does," said Marsha McCartney, a Dallas volunteer for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "It just seems to be a moneymaker for them. They're willing to issue a license to anyone.

"Why would Texas put in place these restrictions if you could go elsewhere? If you live in Texas and you're going to conceal carry, you ought to have a concealed license from Texas," she said. "It's common sense."

When a gun bill is filed by a perennial, anti-gun, NRA F-rated Representative (Burnam), and is supported by the Brady Bunch, I tend to look very closely at what good can come of it. Any time a Brady spokesperson uses the clause, "It's common sense," the hair on my neck starts standing on end. In this case, I can see no need for the bill; certainly, out-of-state CCW holders in Texas aren't running around causing mayhem. But what the bill would do is create new legislation that, even if slightly, errodes 2A rights.

Any proposed gun bill that further limits any rights and that delivers no value is, to me, a bad bill. There are hundreds and hundreds of bills filed each legislative session, and only small fraction ever make it to committee and calendar. Having an unnecessary gun bill in the mix just dilutes time and attention from Representatives and Senators. There are two big gun-related issues that I want my legislators paying attention to and supporting this session. I don't want anything Lon Burnam or the Brady Bunch does to distract from that.