Precinct 4 Constable Tom Brown loves what the Obama administration has done for his end of the economy.

Brown is one of the 1,511 concealed handgun license course instructors and one of only a few in the Bee County area. And business has been good “ever since Nov. 4,” he said this week.

Since Barack Obama was elected president, his classes have been full and people have had to wait for a chance to sign on for a class.

On March 21, another dozen people took the course and today are on their way to joining the other 314,574 Texans who already have concealed handgun licenses.

Brown has been teaching the CHL course since 1996. He was one of the students in the first CHL instructor class at the Texas Department of Public Safety Academy.

On Saturday, Brown had students from Bee, Live Oak and San Patricio counties sitting at tables in his barn, watching informational slides and listening to him lecture on the law, gun safety, settling disputes without violence and other topics.

Some of the students taking Brown’s course said they had tried to enroll in classes closer to home only to be told they would have to wait months.

Two of the students were women, some were under 40, one man was probably under 30. But most were past 50.

All were law-abiding, responsible adults with no criminal history, no bad conduct discharges from the military, no family violence history, no sex offenses or drug offense charges in their pasts.

“I call people like that good guns,” Police Chief Joe Treviño said this week. “To me, the more good guns out there the better.”

Brown said DPS officials apparently agree with that. He told his class Saturday that the DPS has conducted many studies on the effects of CHL holders on crime rates and especially on random shooting incidents in public places.

“They’re saying if you have a CHL, you should just go ahead and carry,” Brown said. He cited a study the DPS did on a mall shooting incident in Salt Lake City, Utah, in February 2007. An 18-year-old with a shotgun walked into Trolley Square, a shopping mall, and killed five people before an off-duty police officer found the assailant and started shooting back at him. He managed to keep the gunman pinned down until on-duty officers could get there. The teen, Sulejman Talovic, finally was shot to death.

Brown said the DPS determined that if one person with a concealed handgun had been at the mall and had returned fire, the killer would have fled.

“Most of those people are cowards,” Brown said. “It seems like it happens more and more,” he said of the mass shootings that have plagued the nation. But in almost every case, the people who attack others in mass shootings chose locations where they know no one is likely to be able to shoot back.

In fact, it was the largest mass shooting in the history of the country that led the Texas Legislature to pass the “shall issue” law that allows law-abiding Texans to carry concealed handguns.

It was on Oct. 16, 1991, that 35-year-old George Hennard crashed his 1987 Ford Ranger pickup through the front of a Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen and went on a shooting spree that left 23 people dead and another 20 wounded.

Susanne Gratia Hupp, who was 32 at the time, was in that restaurant with her parents. She had been carrying a handgun in her purse but she took it out and put it in the glove compartment of her car before the three of them walked in for their meal.

Hupp’s father ended up trying to rush Hennard to stop the shooting. He was killed. Then Hennard killed Hupp’s mother.

Hupp later testified before the Texas Legislature and in 1995 urged them to pass the concealed handgun law.

Although some predicted increases in shootings on the streets of Texas, the law apparently has had the opposite effect.

“With gun ownership comes a whole lot of responsibility,” said Sheriff Carlos Carrizales Jr. But with a CHL, it reaffirms the fact that people are responsible. They’ve had to go through all the training that’s required by the DPS.”

Assistant Police Chief Kenneth Jefferson agreed.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” he said. “People who go through that course are usually law-abiding citizens.”

“I like them,” Chief Deputy Alden Southmayd said of CHL holders. “I think it’s a good idea. It gives people their protection and they have to go through training and learn the law.”

Brown is a district court bailiff who earns part of his living watching the reactions of people who are facing possible prison time. In his course, Brown explains outward mannerisms of people show when they are about to lose control.

He teaches his students to use verbal skills to defuse potentially violent situations. Using a handgun is the absolute last resort, he told his students last Saturday.

One thing he stressed repeatedly during his course is that a CHL holder is liable in court for any action involving the use of a gun.

Brown also knows his firearms. He was a competition shooter from 1992 to 1995 along with a group from Corpus Christi. Lately, he has been competing monthly with a group from the Coastal Bend Peace Officers group.

“I love to shoot,” he said. “I don’t like to kill.”

“I try to have at least six people in a class,” Brown said. A dozen students is about as big a class as he wants in the barn on his ranch where he teaches the course.

His range is a few steps away from the barn.

“Basically, most people are afraid the federal government is going to try to repeal the law,” Brown said when trying to explain the sudden increase in the CHL course. Apparently people believe the best way to protect that right is to exercise it.

People interested in taking the course should watch for his advertisements. He also can be found at his office on the first floor of the Bee County Courthouse or on duty in the district courtrooms.

Having a CHL does not mean that the person with the license is likely to end up in a shootout someday.

Treviño said that in his entire 20-year career at a police officer, “I’ve only known one person with a CHL who has ever drawn his gun.”

But like most law enforcement officers, Treviño is glad to know there are “good guns” around these days when they are needed.

When a police officer finds himself alone and in trouble, one of those good guns just might save his life.