Well said. And I sometimes wonder about the people who talk about "losing" gun rights, when they're becoming more liberal all the time instead of more restrictive. When I started in law enforcement 50 years ago, there was no such thing as Concealed Carry permits; it was illegal to carry concealed or otherwise, at least in Texas. Naturally, there were some exceptions, but the instructor at the police academy said, "If you catch someone carrying a handgun, you put him in jail and let him prove he meets one of the exceptions."
Even when I retired 25 years ago, Texas had no CHL. Then in later years we got such a law. I checked into it and decided it was too expensive, take too much time to obtain, etc. Then in 2004, we got a Federal law that made it legal for "honorably" retired law enforcement officers to carry, as long as they qualified on the firing range annually at the department from which they retired. At my wife's and friends' insistence, I did that.
And now . . . for anyone, not just law enforcement retirees, the length of time required for the CHL class has been cut in half, the cost and inconvenience of submitting fingerprints has been reduced, no renewal or re-qualification required for more than 4 years, and the cost of the application process has been reduced.
So . . . I decided instead of having to call the police range once a year, give them name, badge number, social security number, date of birth, etc. at least a week or two in advance, then drive all the way out there on a date on which they are having qualifications, maybe finding they have so many active duty officers shooting at that time that retirees get bumped to a later time, that I'd see first hand what it's like to get a CHL.
So I did the application online, didn't have to wait on the USPS mail service, went and got electronic fingerprints made and sent to the state Department of Public Safety (no ink, no mail), and a week ago Saturday attended the class and did the firearms "proficiency" test on the range.
And I can tell you this much. If you can read and write and can load a handgun and point it in the general direction you want to shoot, I don't know how it would be possible to fail the class or shooting test. Of course I easily scored 100% on the written test, but I was a bit embarrassed by a couple of low shots that made me only score 97.2 on the proficiency test. And I DO NOT consider myself to be a particularly good shot!
I don't understand why anyone would carry illegally when it's so easy to get a CHL and be legal.
