TexasCHLforum.com

I think that we are liking at this statistic in the wrong way. Gaining a CHL or joining the ranks of law enforcement are both rare activities; most folks are not a member of either group. But those groups offer insight into a far broader section of society.

Look at murder, a crime for which we have good statistics (at least on victims): it's an exceptionally focal problem. Visiting or living in "Chiraq" doesn't put you at risk unless you go to a select few neighborhoods. Hundreds of folks are shot and killed there every year; Obama's neighborhood has seen exactly 2 murders. YTD for 2018. That pattern of highly focal crime varies from type to type, but in general the image of a free for all in which the law of the jungle prevails is a mockery of the real state of affairs.

Put another way, the CHL statistics may point out how law abiding we are, but they also speak to how law-abiding MOST folks are. In terms of predicting the likely effect of gun control, that point cannot be over emphasized. Far and away most people who die from a gunshot wound in a given year were either a) already prohibited from having a gun or b) could've achieved their purpose with a flintlock. Gun control doesn't try to address cyclical poverty or untreated depression.