by Douglas DeBono, 2006

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT StandingOrders.BlogSpot.Com, July 12, 2006

Two headlines hit The Drudge Report today. The first was declaration by Washington D.C.'s police chief that a crime alert had been declared; the second was a story that Florida’s violent crime rate was the lowest in 17 years.

What's the difference?

Guns! You know the evil handgun. The malicious assault weapon (whatever that is). The wild west loose in civilized society! Hide the kids Martha, the neighbor across the street may be packing!

The Washington D.C. crime alert came about, due to a couple robberies and a murder on the National Mall (Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol Dome). This area is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Park Service. You remember these folks, they were the lead investigative agency for the Vince Foster (gag, cough) suicide. Vince managed to shoot himself in the head and fall into a perfect position (like he was home asleep in bed) without getting any mud on his shoes and he even tore up the suicide note. Those folks are losing a grip on the tourist friendly National Mall.

So D.C. Metro is stepping up to meet the crisis. You have to understand that Washington has more than a dozen different law enforcement agencies running around loose. Coordination to meet criminal mischief is probably less than optimal - after all, they do have to contend with the House and Senate.

Finally, D.C. residents live under onerous gun restrictions. This means that only the bad guys have guns.

Florida on the other hand liberalized her gun laws so that residents and non-residents can carry. I hold two carry permits (one from Minnesota and the other from Florida). With those to permits, I have the privilege to carry in thirty states. Florida also passed a law that basically states you don't have to retreat in the face of the bad guys. Result: lots of people have guns (including the tourists) and the bad guys aren't real sure when the next blue haired grandma is going to pull out a Dirty Harry sized .44 and croak, "Make my day."

So you decide which system is working out better. The one where tourists are getting robbed next to the Washington Monument, or where granny's got her gun.