For OldSouth's readership from across the globe, Memphis probably means Elvis, Johnny Cash, barbecue, Beale Street, Blue Suede Shoes and the duck parade at the Peabody Hotel. It's those things, to be sure, but the reality of Memphis is actually quite gritty. A lot of widespread poverty, a lot of concentrated wealth, a long tradition of corrupt machine politics, all situated on a 'choke-point' for all modes of shipping, north-south-east-west, in North America. Built on the nineteenth-century cotton trade(which was predicated on slavery), everything about the place is shot through with race. Locate the city in a brutally hot climate, next door to Arkansas and Mississippi, and stir gently. What could go wrong?
Well, they have always had a crime problem, a drug-and-despair fuelled crime problem, a completely-senseless-murder-and-mayhem-as-a-way-of-life problem.
So, from today's Commercial Appeal:
The simultaneous election of a leftist President and Congress, and a severe economic downturn, have led to a surge in handgun permits across the state, and especially in Memphis.
The number of Tennesseans licensed by the state to go armed increased by nearly 51,000 people last year — to 268,711, according to new state statistics. That's an increase of 23 percent over the 218,004 Tennesseans with handgun-carry permits on Jan. 1, 2009. By comparison, the 2008 increase was 14 percent, according to Tennessee Department of Safety figures.
In Shelby County, the number of residents with handgun-carry permits jumped by 5,205 in 2009 to 38,130, up 16 percent. The Shelby County increase in 2008 was 15 percent.
The new data indicate that about 6 percent of Tennessee residents old enough to have a handgun-carry permit -- those ages 21 and up -- had one at the start of this year.
The permit rate is a little lower among people with Memphis addresses. The 20,716 people in the city with gun permits account for about two out of every 50 Memphis residents 21 and up, or nearly 5 percent.
Knoxville has the highest concentration of permit-holders among the state's largest cities: More than 11 percent of its residents 21 and up are licensed to carry firearms.
That's two years of double-digit increases, year over year. The article notes a bit later that violent crime rates dropped dramatically as the rate of handgun ownership rose. Of course, the two facts were separated in the article, and no possible correlation between the two phenomena was mentioned.
It's probably impossible to validly correlate one with the other, but the coincidence is striking. If a person with intent to commit a crime knows he faces a real probability that his potential victim is packing, that is a true incentive to make better life decisions.
Tennessee is a 'right-to-carry' state, a 'must-issue' state. Ergo, any legal resident of the state with proof of citizenship, no criminal record, who passes the mandated course, completes the application, and pays his $115, will be issued a conceal-carry permit. Comply with the statute, and the State must comply as well. Easy-peasy.
OS predicts the trend will continue...
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