Times Dispatch: McEachin Misfires on Restaurant Carry

The Richmond Times Dispatch (RTD) had this editorial today where they don't mince words in telling Richmond State Senator Donald McEachin that he is wrong in saying the numbers related to a decrease in crimes committed in restaurants one year after restaurant carry became law "doesn't disprove anything."

The drop may be mere coincidence. But contrary to McEachin's doubts, it does indeed disprove something: It disproves the dire pronouncements of those who opposed the measure during the years it was being debated.

Not only does the editorial take McEachin to task, they also call out Virginia Beach Police Chief Jake Jacocks, Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms, the Virginia Center for Public Safety, and Salon magazine for having made predictions of disaster if the restaurant ban was repealed.

This is not surprising. Time and again, the public has been warned that broadening the scope of gun rights will lead — automatically, as it were — to an increasing incidence of bloodshed. It happened when Florida passed its concealed-carry law, and when other states followed suit. It happened when the Supreme Court upheld an individual right to carry firearms, and again when the high court applied that ruling to cities beyond the District of Columbia. Time and time again, the prediction has been proven wrong.

The RTD editorial concludes that while the deterrence effect of allowing citizens more freedom on carrying firearms is a very hard thing to prove, one this is clear: More guns do not lead to more crime.

Virginia's experience with its concealed-carry law fits a long-running pattern. Unfortunately, most gun-control advocates probably will wave away any data that do not support their dubious hypothesis, just as McEachin has. That is a long-running pattern, too.