[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 21263]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         CONCEALED GUN LICENSES

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, in recent years, lobbyists for the National 
Rifle Association, NRA, have been pressing state legislatures around 
the country to pass so called ``shall issue'' laws. ``Shall issue'' 
laws require that licensing authorities shall or must issue concealed 
weapons permits to those who meet standard eligibility requirements. 
The state laws take discretion away from local law enforcement 
agencies, who would ordinarily use their own criteria to determine who 
should carry a concealed weapon.
  When such a law was proposed in my home state of Michigan, every 
major law enforcement organization in the state spoke out against it. 
Athletes, entertainers, religious leaders and some lawmakers joined 
them in their public plea to keep concealed firearms off our streets. 
In the end, although both the State House and Senate passed the ``shall 
issue'' legislation, lawmakers yielded to public pressure and refused 
to proceed to a conference committee, thereby rejecting the law.
  While Michigan's citizens acted quickly to ensure that lawmakers 
rejected the NRA backed proposal, other state legislatures embraced the 
law as their own. This week the Los Angeles Times published an 
extensive report on the effects of the relatively new law that gives 
Texans the right to carry concealed weapons into public places, 
including churches, hospitals, nursing homes, and amusement parks. The 
Times story reveals that since the ``shall issue'' law's inception in 
1995, and its expansion in 1997, Texas has issued concealed weapons 
permits to more than 400 criminals with prior convictions, and has 
since arrested more than 3,000 licensees.
  Based on the LA Times investigation, it appears that the law billed 
as part of an ``anti-crime'' package could really be more accurately 
described as pro-crime. A recently released study from the Violence 
Policy Center disclosed that Texans with concealed-carry licenses were 
66 percent more likely to be arrested for firearms violations than 
Texans who did not have such licenses.
  The LA Times story explains that part of the problem is that in many 
cases, concealed permits were given to those whose records should have 
disqualified them. Perhaps the most disturbing case is that of Terry 
Gist, also known to his friends as ``Holsters'' because of his well-
known affection for guns. Before he even applied for his permit to 
carry a concealed weapon in Texas in 1997, Gist had already been to 
court for trying to choke his wife and threaten her with a gun (she had 
a restraining order out against him) and arrested while in the army for 
brandishing his handgun at a local citizen in Haiti. After he passed 
the state background check and received his concealed weapons permit in 
the mail, he was known to carry two semiautomatic handguns, sometimes 
three, with him at all times. Gist bragged that he displayed one of 
those guns to a driver during a ``freeway feud.'' In 1998, Gist was 
arrested and convicted for sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl 
who said during the trial that she was afraid he was going to shoot 
her.
  The most common category of problems associated with concealed 
weapons holders, however, are not those of Terry Gist, but those of 
people like Paul Leuders. Leuders, a Houston computer analyst, became 
so upset when he almost missed his bus that the concealed weapons 
licensee took out his gun and shot the bus driver in the chest.
  Law abiding citizens, armed with concealed weapons, are too often 
turning what would otherwise be unpleasant but not catastrophic events, 
such as fender-benders and commuting hassles, into tragedies. The 
``shall issue'' laws in Texas and in states around the country don't 
make us safer, they make us less secure. In addition, they send the 
wrong message to our children, that the way to deal with the problems 
of modern life is with a gun. People around the country reject the NRA 
logic that they are unsafe in public places if they are not armed. 
Legislatures should do the same.
  America has come a long way since the days of the wild west. Over the 
last years our law enforcement agencies have developed better ways to 
reduce violent crime and keep our streets safe. ``Shall issue'' laws go 
in the wrong direction by increasing the number of weapons on the 
streets and the dangers we and our children face.

                          ____________________