(Springfield, VA) — Gun Owners of America today praised the responsible citizens of Michigan for defying the doomsayers last year who falsely predicted that a new law liberalizing its firearms laws would lead to chaos in the streets.

“The Chicken Littles were wrong once again,” said GOA Director of Communications Erich Pratt. “We hear the same, ominous predictions every time a state passes a concealed carry law. The Brady Bunch claims the sky is going to fall once citizens start packing heat. But it has yet to occur.

“Michigan is no exception,” Pratt said. “One year ago today, the Wolverine State liberalized its firearms laws, allowing even more private citizens to carry firearms concealed for their own defense.

“There are now several thousand new citizens carrying guns in the state, and the predicted shootouts simply haven’t materialized.”

Across the country the statistics show that, every day, almost 1,500 people use guns while they are away from home to protect themselves from criminal attacks. The success story has been so great that some opponents of concealed carry have even admitted they were wrong to oppose such laws in the first place.

“Florida passed a concealed carry law in 1987 and saw its murder rate fall 39 percent in the 10 years following the passage of its law,” Pratt said. “State Representative Ron Silver, who was the leading opponent of the law before it passed, graciously admitted several years later that he had been wrong.

“Similar confessions have been heard in the state of Texas, which has seen its murder rate drop 34 percent in the five years following the passage of its concealed carry law in 1995,” Pratt stated.