On January 12, nearly one week after a suspect gunned down unarmed, defenseless travelers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the New York Times argues that allowing law-abiding citizens to be armed for self-defense in unsecured areas of airports is “delusional.”
In other words, the contention that concealed carry permit holders would shoot back and stop the attack rather than collapse in fear and cry like children is crazy.
The NYT quotes Florida state Representative Jake Raburn (R-57) saying, “There could have been the potential for people to protect themselves in that situation.” He has subsequently put forward legislation that will allow concealed carry permit holders to carry their guns in the unsecured areas of Florida airports. This would catch Florida up with the rest of the country, where 44 states already allow concealed permit holders to carry in such areas.
The NYT, however, describes this push as “delusional,” saying, “The grim truth is that concealed-carry permit holders are rarely involved in stopping crime.” Moreover, the article goes on to claim there is a chance concealed permit holders will actually carry out mass shootings, and attempts to back up this claim by citing a Violence Policy Center (VPC) study.
The outlet does not note that the VPC uses quotes from debunked Harvard researcher David Hemenway, nor does it grapple with the unrefuted academic work of Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck. For more than 20 years, Kleck’s work has shown that about 760,000 defensive gun uses occur annually in the U.S., and that represents the minimum number.
Instead, the NYT claims the concealed carry permit holders would pose a greater threat to public safety than did the scenario where the only person armed was the criminal. In so doing, it ignores that Florida currently has “gun-free” regulations for its airports–regulations that did nothing to stop a determined attacker from killing innocents in cold blood. In truth, those regulations made doing so easier because the innocents could not fight back.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.