Apartheid. USA 1988

October 12, 1987:

The State of Florida lifted gun controls. Viewers of NBS-TV's ‘Miami Vice’ already know Florida as a place where cops and robbers - or at least the actors who portray them - regularly shoot it out on the public streets. Now, state lawmakers may be turning television into reality, but this time many of the firearms will be in amateur hands. Critics say that a law that went on the books last week permitting the carrying of guns in public threatens to unleash a new era of real-life mayhem.

Thousands of crime-weary Floridians are ready to pack a pistol in response to fast rising crime. Violent offenses jumped 12 percent last year amid a booming narcotics trade. Already 36 000 requests for concealed-weapons permit applications poured in, forcing the state to hire 65 employees to process them.^155.

155. US News & World Report magazine, from a report by Ted Gest with Marilyn Moore in Miami