Guest Column: Bruce Krafft
It's My Soapbox, and I Can Share If I Want To
Normally, I don't include guest columns in the space; it's my soapbox, after all.But I'm willing to make an exception or two. I made one for my daughter Judy's essay on the Minnesota Citizens Personal Protection Act. It seemed to me to be unfair that she put that much work into it, and then for the Star Tribune—which solicited submissions for their essay contest—to cancel the contest because of an unrelated matter.
And here's another one.
Bruce Krafft is an increasingly well-known activist in the local self-defense community. He was very helpful to me in my card-in at the Mall of America last year. (For those you who missed it, I spent a couple of hours passing out "no guns, no money" cards to merchants there, explaining that telling law abiding permit holders to take their business elsewhere wasn't exactly a good way to increase their profits. The KMSP coverage was a lot of fun. While the Mall security people were busy looking for -- and unable to find "the protestor"—me—as I walked around handing out cards and chatting, Bruce and the others gave out quite literally hundreds and hundreds of the cards.)
Bruce tends to push the envelope, a little. Not in any violent or aggressive way, of course. He used to carry openly, from time to time, in public. While that's not prohibited by Minnesota law—and I know you don't want to hear from me again how the MCPPA isn't a "conceal and carry" law—I think that's a little premature. There will come a time when even the most nervous people won't freak out by the occasional sight of a holstered handgun on a permit holder's belt, but the time isn't now. I think we need to give those nervous folks more time, and And I've told him so. He's an adult; he can make up his own mind.
Bruce scored a major public relations victory the other day at the opening of the legislative session. He was there for a little political activism—I would have been there, but I was busy working on the book—and one of the very few folks who showed up on behalf of the "Citizens for a Safer Minnesota" asked him if he was carrying, and he—Bruce is very big on "Minnesota Nice"—answered that he was, and upon request, pulled his jacket slightly back to show her where.
She immediately summoned the capitol police, apparently expecting to see him thrown down on the ground, manhandled, and handcuffed.
She was disappointed. The capitol police are professionals, who know that permit holders who have given proper notice to the Commissioner of Public Safety are allowed to carry in the capitol, and have been so for years, without any problem. The capitol policewoman merely came over, politely asked to see Bruce's notification letter, looked it over, smiled, handed it back to him, wished him a good day, and left, all in the view of the waiting news crews, who had been cued by the "Citizen for a Safer Minnesota" to expect some disturbance.
Fizzle. Sput.
So, instead of the news story being about the "repeal conceal" rally—which had fizzled, anyway—it turned out to be about how a soft-spoken, gentle, political activist can be treated appropriately by the authorities.
Film at 11.
The combination of good intentions and success needs to be acknowledged; I offered Bruce the loan of my soapbox, and he graciously accepted.
Over to Bruce, with a very good essay on numbers, and what they mean. While most of the text on this website is, of course, my copyrighted material, the following is, also of course, copyright (c) 2004 by Bruce Krafft.
Just Joel, again.Crunching the Numbers
by Bruce Krafft
At the "Repeal Conceal" event on the opening day of the legislature, Rep. Nora Slawick, author of the legislation, proudly announced that they had 27,000 signatures on their petition to repeal the MCPPA. On being pressed for details, she passed me off to one of the professional anti-gunners who had more information. This woman proudly stated that a computer program had culled the list of all duplicate entries. I asked if the signatures had been verified in any way. "We are working on deciding whether to do that" was her reply.
Oh.
Okay, let's be generous and say that all 27,000 signatures are genuine and unique.
So what is involved in signing this petition? What kind of time and money investment are we talking about here? Go to the website, and type in your name, street address, city, telephone and e-mail. Time, minutes, cost, nada. Signing the petition manually takes a little more effort because you have to handwrite your name, complete address (including ZIP code), telephone number, and e-mail, but the net cost is still zero. Total time invested about two minutes. Cash outlay, bupkiss.
During the same period that the "Repeal Conceal" petition got 27,000 signatures, KSTP-TV reports that there were 15351 new permits issued.
What kind of time and effort investment is involved with getting a permit to carry?
A lot.
First: you probably want a gun. I spent about 20 hours researching online and talking with various people before buying my first carry pistol, a Baby Eagle 9mm, for $420. Then I needed some normal-capacity magazines to supplement the 10 round low-cap mag that it came with. Those were $25 each or $45 for 2. I got 6, but most people would probably be okay with 2.
Ammunition. I ran 500 rounds of cheap ammo ($12.99/100) through it, testing the operation of the gun and mags, and learning how to shoot it. Then I ran 100 rounds of carry ammo (hollow points, $9.99/50) through it, and had to buy another box to reload when I was done.
Grand total for ammunition (not counting ongoing practice) about $95.
Then I needed a holster to carry the gun. I tried various waist options, but since I suffer from Dunlaps Disorder (my belly dun laps over my belt) those didn't work, so I wound up with a shoulder holster (Uncle Mike's Sidekick, $45). I understand I got off easy since the first holster I tried out worked for me. I understand that most people who carry have a "holster drawer" full of the ones which didn't quite work out.
I then needed a couple of lockboxes ($10 each) one for each car so I could lock up the gun when going to work or someplace else where they prohibit self-defense. So far, the cost of the gun and accessories was $625 (plus tax). I got lucky again when it came time to take my carry course, I got hooked up with a "friends and family" special that was only $75. Most courses at that time were running $125 to $200. Counting the 1 hour drive each way, that was another 8 hours invested.
I then had to do the actual application down at the sheriff's office; another hour and $100. So grand total, not counting range time or costs, I invested $800 and almost 30 hours to get my permit. Obviously for people who already had a pistol and holster, the cost and time would be less, but we are still talking about a minimum of about $200 and several hours of time. These figures also do not include the hours spent thinking about whether you should get a permit, discussing it with your loved ones, finding out your work policies, etc..
So on the one hand we have "Repeal Conceal", which required no money and virtually no effort from its supporters, and they managed to get 27,000 signatures.
On the other hand we have permit holders, which required hundreds dollars and hours of time from its "supporters", and they managed to get 15,351 "signatures".
If I were Nora Slawick I would be embarrassed.
What can I say, but: "yeah"?