Weapons exemptions

Dear Editor,

In 1998, California passed a carry license reform bill that turned us into a presumptive shall issue state in reality.

We have so many locked- container exemptions from the carry prohibition that most reasons why folks need to carry are exempt. In addition, people in the private security field are in effect state licensed and exempt from the need for the regular permit and ditto for retired cops and the like.

In most states after they pass a permit law amid all the hoopla -- given all the concerns and all the prohibitions -- at most 1 percent of the population applies for permits and the renewal rates are low. 

That was true in Michigan and Ohio and every other state. The other thing is that most of the people who initially apply for permits are rural males who own guns because they are into it.

Once they have the permits though, they don't renew.

In California there are 48,000 true permits plus another 150,000 people who carry loaded and concealed legally under various defacto state permits.

Irwin Nowick

via e-mail