"now nearly 19 million Americans with permits to carry a concealed handgun – an increase of 1.4 million, or about 8 percent – from around this time last year."

The Crime Prevention Research Center tells us,

Fox News has a news story about our latest report on the number of concealed handgun permits continuing to grow:

Even as the topic of gun control continues to remain a focus in the Democratic 2020 presidential primary, more Americans than ever are believed to have obtained concealed carry permits.

In a report released this week, the Crime Prevention Research Center says there are now nearly 19 million Americans with permits to carry a concealed handgun – an increase of 1.4 million, or about 8 percent – from around this time last year.

The nonprofit, which describes itself as a “research and education organization dedicated to conducting academic quality research on the relationship between laws regulating the ownership or use of guns, crime and public safety,” said the new figure was estimated by reviewing state records.

The state with the highest percentage of concealed carry permits is Alabama, with nearly 26 percent, followed by Indiana with 18 percent and South Dakota with 16 percent.

The center also said that three states have more than 1 million concealed carry permit holders – Georgia, Texas and Pennsylvania – while Florida is the only state to have more than 2 million. . . .

Read more here.

Another good guy with a concealed carry weapon

Yesterday a KOLR news anchor in Missouri tweeted "20-year-old man with rifle, handgun & body armor arrested at Walmart on Republic. SFD Police say he had 100+ rounds of ammunition. Off-duty firefighter with concealed carry gun held him at gunpoint until officers arrived about 3 minutes later"

250 teachers responded in 24 hours!

AWR Hawkins reports at Breitbart,

Read the story here.

Ending the threat

Honesty

Bob Owens brings us a story about:

The parents of a dead armed robber are very angry over his death, and are demanding to know why his innocent victim was allowed to be armed.

It’s been a difficult week for parents Temia Hairston and Michael Grace Sr. Their son, Michael Grace Jr., was shot and killed during an attempted robbery early Sunday morning.

Police said Grace Jr. and two other people tried to rob a Pizza Hut in the 3200 block of Freedom Drive. During the incident, an employee fired his own handgun and killed Grace Jr.

Hairston said she learned of her son’s death on social media, and only got confirmation from police after contacting them first. The grieving mother said she has been left with dozens of questions about the situation that have thus far gone unanswered.

“If there was to be a death, it was not the place of the employee at Pizza Hut. That is the place of law enforcement,” said Hairston

….

The parents are angry that their son was shot and killed by an employee. They don’t believe the full story has been released to the public.

“Why in the hell did this guy have a gun?” questioned Hairston about the employee who shot her son.

She said her son was shot in the head, and she thinks the shooting may have even been personal, citing past conflicts Grace Jr. had had with other employees at the restaurant.

“This wasn’t a body shot. This was a head shot. My son was shot in the left side of his head just behind his ear. A head shot is personal,” said Hairston.

Even though their son was in the process of committing a crime, the family thinks his death was undeserved and unjustified.

Hairston said she thinks the employee who shot her son needs to be in jail, and wants all parties involved in the situation to be honest about what happened.

Bob writes,

You want honesty, Temia Hairston? I’ll give you honesty.

The honest truth, Temia Hairston, is that every human being is born with the natural human right to arm themselves for the defense of their lives from both rogue governments and violent criminals. Your dead thug of a son was one of three vile human predators who obtained deadly weapons and put the lives of innocent people at risk—and likely would have ended their lives without a second thought—over the petty contents of a restaurant cash drawer.

Here’s some more honesty for you.
It is not the role of law enforcement to protect individual lives. This is immutable truth that which is also both a practical fact and a legal reality. One person and one person alone is responsible for defending your life against violent predators, and that person is the individual.

This Pizza Hut employee respected his own life enough to arm himself, and it proved to be a wise decision. Your son Michael Grace Jr. and his accomplices were committing a violent armed felony when the employee drew his (lawfully) concealed weapon and opened fire to defend not only his life, but the lives of other employees in the store.

Ms. Hairston, you then complained that the bullet that struck your son behind the ear during the ensuing firefight was “personal.”

Ma’am, preying on your fellow human beings is incredibly personal, even if armed robbery seemed to be your son’s idea of business. Would you have been mollified if the Pizza hut employee had put a controlled pair through his heart instead? I think not. At the core of it, your complaint is that your son was killed committing a crime, and you don’t seem to think that he deserved it, even as he callously and intentionally put numerous other lives at risk.

Read more here.

Concealed carry saves an officer's life in Ohio

Bob Owens reports at Bearing Arms,

A concealed carrier in Ohio has been presented with the Citizen’s Award of Valor for stepping in with a drawn handgun to stop a meth abuser who was fighting a Mount Vernon officer for control of the officer’s gun.

Read more here.

Bye, Bye

Don Surber posts this letter under this headline at Surber's blog: You won't be missed, professor

How about a sign encouraging concealed carry?

Michael D. Brown posts on his Facebook page this sign from Minnesota's Mall of America.

Terrorists are urging fellow Islamists to attack America's malls, and are specifically using images from the Mall of America to promote the idea of attacking. Does the sign above give you confidence that the Mall of America would be a safe place to visit? It doesn't for me. Similar signs were posted here in Colorado at the Aurora theater where an attacker opened fire, killing and injuring many unarmed people.

Drugs can make you stupid

WCHS in Charleston posted this video of a young man robbing a pharmacy at gunpoint. The pharmacist had a concealed weapon permit. It did not turn out well for the would-be-robber.

The importance of satire to freedom and liberty

Kudos to the Drudge Report for providing us with the cartoon that enraged Islamic terrorists, who planned and carried out the attack in Paris yesterday. Here is the cartoon.

Anybody know how to translate it into English? Every news source in the free world should publish the cartoon.

The French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which was targeted yesterday by Islamist terrorists, sounds similar to our The Onion. Ivan Plis writes that the magazine has a long history of mocking religions.

The magazine also posted a cartoon of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to its Twitter feed earlier today.

The magazine has also been critical of France’s Catholic-aligned political right, often expressed through parodies of Jesus, Mary, the pope and other Catholic figures. Last week’s cover promised “The True Story of Baby Jesus,” based on infancy narratives from outside the Biblical canon. In the cartoon, the holy infant appears in a flash between the legs of his mother, spread apart as if in gynecologist’s stirrups.

I'm sure it is just a matter of time before Christian terrorists open fire on the magazine. Wait, maybe not. That may be one difference between Christianity and Islam: Christian terrorists confine themselves to blowing up abortion clinics.

One of the cartoonists killed on Wednesday, known professionally as “Charb,” had said that the magazine’s goal was to make “Islam as banal as Catholicism,” so it is acceptable to scrutinize and ridicule it.

Charb (Stéphane Charbonnier) had been under police protection ever since appearing on a “wanted” list in Inspire, the digital magazine of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. He was famously quoted during the 2012 controversy as saying “I would rather die standing than live kneeling.” Besides Charb, three other cartoonists were reportedly killed in Wednesday’s attack.

Maybe a concealed carry permit would have been more effective than police protection?

Most interpretations of Islam prohibit any depiction of Muhammad, and many Muslim-majority countries have laws against “defamation of religion.”

I might add that those laws don't seem to prohibit defamation of Christianity or Judaism, now do they?

The shooters shouted “Allahu akbar” and “The prophet is avenged” while carrying out their attack. Terror analysts also noted that they made a one-finger hand gesture, signifying Islam’s emphasis of God’s oneness, that is often featured in propaganda videos of the Islamic State terror group.

Read more here.

One thing this story makes clear to me is that I should continue to place high value on American sources of satire, such as Manhattan Infidel, Scrappleface, Iowahawk, and The Onion.

Detroit Police Chief endorses concealed carry

From Hot Air:

James Craig just took over the office of police chief last summer, but he’s already making waves in Detroit.

If more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday.

At least one recent study suggests that Craig hits the nail on the head. A long-range study by a Quinnipiac University economist shows that states with more restrictions on firearm ownership and carry permits had higher murder rates by guns than gun-friendly states, and suggests that increasing restrictions on concealed-carry permits pushes the murder rate up, not down. It also showed that assault-weapons bans had no effect on murder rates.

Number of people in Illinois seeking concealed carry permits in one month surpasses total number enrolled in Obamacare in two months

Kerry Picket writes at Breitbart that

the amount of Illinois residents seeking a conceal carry permit already surpasses those who enrolled in Obamacare after the first two months of the launch of healthcare.gov. The Chicago Sun-Times reported 4,525 individuals signed up on Sunday alone for their firearms permits, when the State Police first opened the process to all concealed carry applicants.

Illinois State Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said that number is included in Sunday’s total of more than 11,000 people who have signed up because of an early application process that began December 18 and was open to only firearm instructors. Officials told the Sun-Times they expect 350,000 to 400,000 people (about 1,000 per day) will sign up for conceal carry firearm permits this year.

In contrast, the number of Illinois residents going to healthcare.gov over a two-month period and enrolling in Obamacare is currently on a slower pace than those looking to become conceal carry permit holders. Only 7,043 Illinoisans were enrolled in Obamacare plans two months after the website's launch, the Chicago Tribune reported in December.

Additionally, reports say that in the same month, Illinois officials told 30,000 residents who applied at healthcare.gov to re-do their applications, as applicants were denied private coverage and the government mistakenly referred them to Medicaid. The issue has yet to be resolved.