TexasCHLforum.com

The Annoyed Man wrote:The one that surprises me is that Harris County is 17.27% of the total. Given the stuff you hear about Houston PD and past Houston Mayor viz-a-viz CHL, one wonders why there is such a large spike in numbers in that one county.

Maybe some of you Harris County folks could weigh in with a theory?

Simple. We have what is probably the most active urban shooting community (legal shooting; ahem) contained within a 50-mile radius in the State of Texas.

The number of ranges is impressive, and you can shoot an IDPA or USPSA match almost every day of the week. Some matches even overlap.

And perhaps it was because of the past Houston mayor (who should never be elected governor of Texas), and because of the imminent election of yet another liberal mayor in Parker. Sigh. We suffer through this probably because of our urban density; it's the same reason Sheila Jackson Lee is never dethroned.

But perhaps it was mostly because of Hurricane Ike, which tore an irreparable hole in Houston in September 2008, leaving many with damaged and leaking housing, with no electricity, with no phone service, with no gasoline, low on potable water and food, and realizing they were unprepared to survive the unexpected.

Don't know what you hear up north about HPD, but the men and women of the force in Houston who put their lives on the line every day are the best of the best. I know many, and not one--HPD or HCSO--that I know is anti-CHL.

joe817 wrote:138,768 new licenses were issued.

That isn't anemic at all! In fact, I'm duly impressed. Not counting instructors, here are total numbers of licenses issued in recent fiscal years:

2008: 73,090
2007: 90,867
2006: 67,843

For 2002 through 2005, I have only a summary, end-of-year license count, not number issued, but you can get an idea of the (essentially flat) trend:

2005: 248,874
2004: 239,940
2003: 239,863
2002: 224,172

So I'd say last year was a big boost to our numbers, I assume the biggest single-year boost this decade.