Support for Carona on Weapons

I agree with the writers of the May 30 letters in at least one area: Mike Carona probably doesn’t have the experience to be sheriff. I didn’t vote for him.

However, I also have to give him credit in at least one area. As a result of Littleton and Georgia, he is not giving in to a knee-jerk reaction the way most gun control advocates and the vast majority of the rest of the uninformed (including The Times) are.

Strength of character is required not to blow with every wind of public opinion as evidenced by polls taken almost hourly in today’s culture.

Public opinion changes like I change my shirt, and many of those polled know less about firearms than I know about nuclear physics.

If anyone cares to do a little research--and finding the truth on this subject requires very little research--they will find that in every single jurisdiction where permits to carry concealed weapons have been issued to law-abiding citizens with a demonstrable need, the incidence of violent crime and felonious use of firearms has, in fact, decreased.

So before letter writers accuse Carona of being on the National Rifle Assn.’s payroll, they should check the facts. The overwhelming majority of NRA members are also law-abiding citizens who deplore senseless violence just like everyone else.

CHUCK SHARP

San Clemente

* I find it refreshing that we finally have a sheriff who is there for all the people, not just a select few friends.

It is a fact, borne out by statistics, that areas of this country that allow citizens to carry concealed weapons have a lower crime rate.

Orange County is way behind San Diego and other counties in the state in the right to carry.

Frankly, as a pharmacist [who] has worked in many areas of the state and been subjected to several armed holdups on the job, carrying is a definite option I would consider.

I firmly believe that Sheriff Mike Carona is as savvy regarding police matters as anyone in this county and anywhere in this state.

DAVID HANSON

San Juan Capistrano

* I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the ignorant and uneducated comments about the terrible effects that will result from Sheriff Mike Carona’s reasonable and sound position on issuing permits to carry concealed weapons.

Jim Weyant of Yorba Linda demonstrates this ignorance when he, like so many others, states in his May 30 letter that the issuance of permits will “simply open the door to indiscriminate shootings.”

He sounds like other liberals who will not read John Lott’s excellent research on the beneficial effect of licensed gun carrying by citizens in 31 states that have passed permit laws.

Professor Lott’s findings clearly demonstrate that violent gun crimes go down when trained and licensed citizens are allowed to exercise their God-given right to protect themselves and families from the predators in our society.

The 2nd Amendment assures that right. It is time and appropriate that law enforcement leaders like the democratically elected sheriff of Orange County honor and support that right.

ROBERT DAVENPORT

San Clemente

* If Sheriff Mike Carona’s idea for loosening up the concealed carry permit situation in Orange County was something that nobody else had ever done, I could understand a certain fear of it, but it is not something new.

Florida has been doing much the same thing for about 12 years, without any of the terrible things that were predicted happening.

Several hundred thousand people have been issued permits, after being thoroughly investigated, and only a couple dozen of these permits have been revoked because the permit holder abused the privilege.

Carona is not going to just hand out permits like prizes at a bingo game. I think he should be applauded for his courage in doing the fashionably incorrect thing, especially after the last two school shootings. I applaud him.

CHRIS D. PHILLIPS

La Habra