Florida has had a concealed carry law for 18 years now and it's been responsible for a dramatic reduction (36% in less than ten years and continuing to drop steadily) in violent crime in the state. However it had a flaw: It seems that the law-abiding citizen who wished to defend themselves against a thug had to first attempt to run away -- a silly tactic that caused a some folks to get cornered or shot in the back. They corrected this flaw by passing the "stand your ground" law last spring by an overwhelming 94-20 vote in the Florida House and no opposition whatsoever in the senate. The law went into effect this past Saturday, Oct. 1. Needless to say the organization that wants to take away your guns in the name of making you safer -- The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (now there's a misnomer) -- is in a big snit about Floridians new right to actually protect themselves rather than having to attempt to run away first and it is "warning" Florida tourists not to piss off potentially armed Floridians:

Individuals who are unfamiliar with Florida’s roads, traffic regulations and customs, or who speak foreign languages, or look different than Florida residents, may face a higher risk of danger – because they may be more likely to be perceived as threatening by Floridians, and because they are unaware of Florida’s new law that says individual who feel their safety is threatened or their possessions are at risk are legally authorized to use deadly force.

“We think people visiting Florida should be aware of this law, and act accordingly,” said Sarah Brady, Chair of the Brady Campaign. “Visitors should be very careful about getting into an aggressive argument with anyone during their stay.”

Anti-gun psycho Sarah Brady and her minions were busy distributing a flyer containing this and other hysterical messages to passengers as they disembarked at Miami International Airport. Now I must say that I sincerely sympathize with Sarah Brady: Having your husband turned into a semi-vegetable by a crazed bastard with a tiny gun out to impress Jody Foster would be more than enough to drive a lot of people off the deep end. But there are better ways to channel your energies than leading the left's charge to perpetrate the Big Gun Control Lie. And what a lie it is.

In the first place, opposing a law that gives law-abiding citizens more leeway in protecting themselves, their loved-ones and their property on the grounds that the racist bastards are going to shoot you first and ask questions later if you don't look or act like them is completely debased. As National Rifle Association First Vice President Wayne LaPierre notes:

"That's just not what good people do," LaPierre said. "It's been proven that good people can use rational decisions about what's necessary to save their life."

Of course it's just like a bunch of leftist wackos to ascribe the basest motives to every law abiding citizen and use that as an excuse to deprive said citizens of the right to defend themselves against the people they actually should be ascribing the basest motives to.

LaPierre notes, rightly, that the same anti-gun wackos raised the same objections 18 years ago when the original concealed-carry law passed and the dramatic drop in violent crime in Florida proved that these objections were completely groundless. In fact, gun death statistics -- the actual facts that the Brady Campaign is purposely ignorant of -- show that since the advent of concealed carry laws, gun possession has risen dramatically while gun deaths have fallen dramatically. Witness these statistics from the NRA's web site:

* Firearm accident deaths have been decreasing for decades. Since 1930, their annual number has decreased 76%, while the U.S. population has more than doubled and the number of firearms has quintupled. Among children, such deaths have decreased 89% since 1975.
* Firearm accident deaths are at an all-time annual low, nationally and among children, while the U.S. population is at an all-time high. In 2002, there were 762 such deaths nationally, including 60 among children. Today, the odds are more than a million to one against a child in the U.S. dying from a firearm accident.
* The firearm accident death rate is at an all-time annual low, 0.26 per 100,000 population, down 92% since the all-time high in 1904.
* Firearms are involved in 1% of all deaths, and 1% of all deaths among children. Deaths involving firearms have decreased 19% since 1993.
* Firearms are involved in 0.7% of accidental deaths nationally, and in 1% among children. Most accidental deaths involve, or are due to, motor vehicles (41%), poisoning (16%), falls (15%), suffocation (5%), drowning (3%), fires (3%), medical mistakes (2%), environmental factors (1%), and bicycles (1%). Among children: motor vehicles (44%), suffocation (16%), drowning (16%), fires (9%), bicycles (2%), poisoning (2%), falls (2%), environmental factors (1%), and medical mistakes (1%).

Statistics on homicide and traffic fatalities from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention web site show that the U.S. homicide rate in 2002 was 4.11 per 100,000 people while the motor vehicle traffic death rate was 15.3 per 100,000 people. Florida's 2002 statistics were even better: 4.00 per 100,000 for homicide and .16 per 100,000 for accidental firearm deaths compared to .26 for the U.S. as a whole. By comparison, Florida's traffic accident death rate was about 19 per 100,000 -- significantly above the national average. And for you libs out there who are thinking that the NRA's statistics are biased, check them against the CDC's -- they match perfectly.

From these statistics it seems to me that the Brady Campaign could put themselves to better use by handing Florida tourists a flyer warning them about the incredible danger of them dying in an accident in their rental car. But never mind the facts when a hysterical lie makes better press. Facts are tough things for the anti-gun zealots to face but the undeniable fact is that Floridians and the tourists who visit Florida will be safer, not less safe with the passage of this "stand your ground" law. It's shameful that the Brady Campaign would be attempting to scare the crap out of Florida tourists with a lie. But we all know that leftist wackos are shameless and the Brady Campaign wackos are no exception.