Tom McLaughlin: No gun permits and no wild west

It’s been a while, but I haven’t seen any gunfights in the streets of Maine or New Hampshire the past few years, and I live very near the border between the two. That’s what progressives predicted would occur if gun laws loosened and people didn’t have to get permits to carry concealed guns. I haven’t seen any newspaper articles or television reports about increased gun violence, either, after each state passed legislation eliminating concealed carry permits. It’s been three years in New Hampshire and more than four years in Maine, so were the progressives wrong when they predicted both states would turn into the wild, wild west?

Police chiefs in both states were also against the new laws, claiming their officers would be at risk. What do they say now? Nothing. Vermont never required concealed carry permits, and it’s always been one of the safest states in the country. That fact was ignored by progressive gun control advocates when they argued against New Hampshire and Maine revisions of concealed carry permits to copy Vermont.