Others on this forum are much more learned than I in this subject. However, I do note Little's illogic:
'what Minnesota law enforcement leaders have long told us: More concealed handguns on the street will not make us any safer.' - I don't recall the name of the group, but I know there is an LEO group that supports and recognizes the value of guns in the hands of responsible civilians. And, from what I have seen, the LEO leadership often holds views on this subject that are contrary to LEO's in general (comments, LEO's?).
'If the proposal passed, you would never know -- when you or your children walk into ... your local restaurant or shopping mall -- how many people were carrying loaded, concealed handguns.' - point out that that is the case now. Do your residents really believe no one carries a concealed weapon under current law? Of course not - the BG's carry 'em - the law doesn't matter to them. I feel safest around LEO's and gun shops - I'm surrounded by armed, generally honest types of folks.
'The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence has analyzed the latest crime statistics and found that the crime rate has been dropping more than twice as fast in states with strong permit-to-carry laws like Minnesota than in states with laws that make it easy to carry a concealed handgun.' - obviously the CPHV is hardly an independent source for such research. They are the education, legal advocacy, and research affiliate of Handgun Control, Inc. Note how they no longer try to argue that states without CCW have lower crime - now they are reduced to trying to argue that 'strong' permit-to-carry laws are best. Perhaps Lott has some arguments on point to oppose this analysis directly - this is obviously a major point for Little - supposedly we have new stat's to refute Lott's arguments, and I doubt that is the case (the data sounds a little thin).
'...urge rejection of NRA-backed bills to put more guns on our streets.' - since this is the 'outside influence' argument, you might want to cite how many NRA members there are in your state, along with an approximate number of legitimate gun owners.
We could go on and on. I would stress the probably poor stat's and / or analysis they're using for this 'new' information. And, keep stressing the common sense (and documentable) argument that more honest people with guns makes the BG's more nervous ... and encourages them to consider other lines of work. Good luck.
