Spring Break
Concealed carry is bulletproof
Facts are clear, concealed carry laws necessary to allow citizens to protect themselves.
By: Travis Holland
Issue date: 2/6/09 Section: Opinion
The courts have deliberated over the Second Amendment for some time and it has been confirmed that individual gun ownership rights are indeed provided for in the amendment. Americans' right to own firearms is no longer in question. Today, the bigger issue is what to make of concealed carry laws.
In the U.S., only Illinois, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., don't allow any type of concealed carry. Every other state has joined the majority faction after seeing the benefits that can come from allowing citizens to lawfully carry firearms.
Concealed carry laws prove their worth all the time, such as when citizens defend themselves from criminals. Just January, in Houston, two citizens used their legally concealed weapons to defend their office against a would-be attacker. Similar situations occur all the time that serve to further justify concealed carry laws.
One flawed argument against concealed carry laws is that while they allow citizens to carry weapons, they allow criminals to do so as well. This theory falls flat on its face for several reasons.
First of all, an extensive background check is required to get a concealed carry permit. Secondly, criminals who intend to break the law with a firearm aren't going to bother with a permit. Law-abiding citizens are the ones who legally acquire a concealed carry permit.
A study by criminologists Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz estimated that firearms are used for self-defense 2.5 million times every year. In the 1980s, the U.S. Justice Department funded a study by the Social and Demographic Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts. In this study, 1,874 convicted felons from 10 states were interviewed.
The results were astonishing.
According to the study, 34 percent of the criminal respondents said they had been scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed citizen, and 40 percent said they had been deterred from committing a particular crime because they believed the potential victim was armed. If anything, this study seems to admit that it's safe to say armed citizens scare criminals and deter crime.
In the U.S., only Illinois, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., don't allow any type of concealed carry. Every other state has joined the majority faction after seeing the benefits that can come from allowing citizens to lawfully carry firearms.
Concealed carry laws prove their worth all the time, such as when citizens defend themselves from criminals. Just January, in Houston, two citizens used their legally concealed weapons to defend their office against a would-be attacker. Similar situations occur all the time that serve to further justify concealed carry laws.
One flawed argument against concealed carry laws is that while they allow citizens to carry weapons, they allow criminals to do so as well. This theory falls flat on its face for several reasons.
First of all, an extensive background check is required to get a concealed carry permit. Secondly, criminals who intend to break the law with a firearm aren't going to bother with a permit. Law-abiding citizens are the ones who legally acquire a concealed carry permit.
A study by criminologists Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz estimated that firearms are used for self-defense 2.5 million times every year. In the 1980s, the U.S. Justice Department funded a study by the Social and Demographic Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts. In this study, 1,874 convicted felons from 10 states were interviewed.
The results were astonishing.
According to the study, 34 percent of the criminal respondents said they had been scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed citizen, and 40 percent said they had been deterred from committing a particular crime because they believed the potential victim was armed. If anything, this study seems to admit that it's safe to say armed citizens scare criminals and deter crime.
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