Arne Carlson: Conceal/carry is worse for state
March 7, 2004 OPQA0307
Allowing more Minnesotans to carry concealed handguns "offers no benefits for public safety, and simply increases fear and anxiety," said Republican former Gov. Arne Carlson last week, as he helped launch a campaign to repeal Minnesota's 2003 conceal/carry law.
Carlson and former Vice President Walter Mondale are cochairs of the Repeal Conceal Committee.
Here are excerpts from Carlson's remarks at a Capitol news conference:
"Minnesota has been a state where all of its institutions focused on improving our quality of life. Our traditional assumption was that a new policy would be an improvement over the old. That was the test. Now, we find that the bar has been lowered.
"In the case of conceal and carry, the test should be that a new law would favorably improve the public's safety. Otherwise, why change?
"Did that happen? Absolutely not. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety declared last month that there is no evidence so far that the new law has made the state safer. Wow! What a ringing endorsement.
"Past law dealt with this sensitive issue by allowing local governments to exercise judgment and control. That law served us well. Why then the pressure for change?"
When asked whether he had evidence that the new handgun law had made Minnesota less safe, Carlson said, "I think that's a very poor test. We don't pass a law because we don't think it will cause more harm than current law. Place yourselves in the position of going to a surgeon who says, 'I'm not so sure this surgery will work, but let's try it and see what happens. It's no worse than the old surgery.' That doesn't enhance your sense of confidence.
"The test always was, and prayerfully will return, that any law that is approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor presumably improves our quality of life. The Department of Public Safety says that this law did not."
If allowing the carrying of concealed guns "contains great virtue, I'm bothered by the fact that they impose security measures for themselves [at the Capitol complex] that they take away from the rest of us. Why is their workplace more secure than my workplace? Why are my employees subject to a law that the lawmakers themselves refuse to live by?
"The very government that passes laws is the very government that turns around and says, 'This law does not apply to us.' Are we saying that those people who make the law are so privileged that they don't have to suffer the consequences of their own law, but the rest of us are so inconsequential that we have to?"
