CORRESPONDENT OF THE DAY

People, Not Bears, Present Greatest Threat

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Sadly, Hall supported his argument with some strange data on Concealed Carry Weapons permit holders in North Carolina over a 10-year period, which don't even match the numbers given on the official North Carolina Department of Justice Web site.

Hall talks about 263,102 permits being issued in 10 years, yet there were only 225,762 permit applications in the past 12½ years, and thousands of those were denied.

He quotes a revocation rate of 0.2 percent -- which is a very small number to be sure -- but the official total was 736 revocations, which represents a slightly higher percentage, even of the inflated number.

While this is meant to be reassuring, Hall fails to mention that this rate is comparable to the rate of gun misuse in the general population

Now, how about those bear attacks? National Parks data show that black bear attacks are extremely rare and average about one fatality per year in the entire nation.

Also, for every black bear fatality in this country, there are 13 deaths from snakes, 17 from spiders, 45 from dogs, 120 from bees, 374 from lightning -- and a mere 60,000 deaths caused by fellow humans, an average of about six of which take place in National Parks!

I understand that carrying a concealed handgun probably makes the wearer feel safer in parks, but in reality there is no evidence to show that this is anything more than an illusion.

As for me, I think I will still keep my distance from both the bears and my fellow park lovers, as I enjoy what is already one of the safest environments in the entire country.

Andrew L. Goddard, President, Richmond Chapter