I'm Pete du Pont with the National Center for Policy Analysis. There's been an interesting by-product of September 11, and the evidence is right here in my home state. Liberal Delaware has seen gun sales rise 32 percent. And it's a national phenomenon: jumps in gun sales and permit applications.
It's also the continuation of a trend. In the mid-80s, nine states had concealed carry laws. Now it's 33. When Michigan passed its law this summer, 30,000 people applied immediately. And government is rethinking the '70s-based, liberal anti-gun bias. In September, Attorney General Ashcroft said the Second Amendment protects the individual's right to bear arms. In October the fifth circuit court of appeals agreed.
The public change could be the result of terrorism. Or maybe people are just reading the stats: if states without concealed carry laws had adopted them in 1992, there would have been 1,500 fewer murders, 4,000 fewer rapes, 60,000 fewer aggravated assaults.
So now, it seems, we're thinking straight, as the men who framed the Second Amendment assumed we always would.
Those are my ideas, and at the NCPA we know ideas can change the world. I'm Pete du Pont. Next time, trusting the market for retirement.