Massad Ayoob - Gun Digests Why Carry a Concealed Weapon? eShort

Forty-eight of Americas fifty states now have at least some provision for law-abiding private citizens to carry loaded, concealed handguns in public. This comes as a shock to many people in American society. Those responsible adults who choose to avail themselves of the concealed carry privilege will constantly be challenged as to this decision by friends, family, co-workers, and others who have not been educated on the issues involved. This is one reason it is always sensible to be extremely discreet about concealed carry, and to not broadcast the fact that one goes legally armed.

At the same time, the old phrase forewarned is forearmed applies to the argument as well as the practice itself. Those of us whove had to debate the issue repeatedly, in forums ranging from State Houses where reform concealed carry legislation was on the floor to radio, TV, and print media, have learned that the best response is often a sound bite. A good sound bite is short, memorable, and so logical that the listener tends to ask himself, Why didnt I think of that?

The following effective sound bite answers to the most common challenges against concealed carry have been proven to work time and again. As done here, always be able to back them up with more detail. Keep it logical, and always, always apply common sense.

It is generally accepted that the population of this country is approximately three hundred million, and that there are only a bit over 700,000 currently serving police officers. By their nature, wolves attack sheep when the sheepdog isnt there, and criminals are careful to make sure there are no police officers in sight when they attack their victims. This leaves the victim alone to fend for himself or herself.

Carrying a concealed handgun in public is very much like keeping a small fire extinguisher in your car. Neither means that by possessing it, you become an official member of the public safety community. Neither means that you dont need public safety personnel from the fire department or the police department.

But the concealed handgun and the fire extinguisher are each emergency rescue tools designed to allow first responders to crisis to hold the line against death and injury, to control things and save lives, until the designated professionals can get to the scene to do what theyre paid to do. Thats all the responsibly carried concealed handgun is: emergency rescue equipment for use by a competent first responder, who in this case, often turns out to be the intended victim of intentional, violent crime.

Ever since the 1980s, when Florida started the trend of reform legislation that replaced the elitism and cronyism of the old discretionary permit system with the modern, enlightened shall issue model, opponents of self-protection and civil liberties have made the argument that blood would run in the streets. It hasnt happened yet. If anything, statistics show that violent crime against the person seems to go down after shall-issue legislation is passed.

In the wake of the recent confirmation of this by Minnesotas experience with their fledgling shall-issue permit system, my old friend Joe Waldron of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) put it as well as its ever been said. The Committee had noted, According to the (Minneapolis Star Tribune) newspaper, people with gun permits are far less likely to be involved in a crime, whether it is a physical assault, a drug crime or even drunken driving. Authorities have confirmed that the hysterical predictions about gunfights at traffic stops and danger to children simply have not materialized.

Commented Waldron, executive director of the CCRKBA, You will not hear an apology or any kind of acknowledgement from the anti-self-defense crowd about the statistics. No doubt they will try to blame the law for crimes committed by people carrying guns illegally. But the newspaper did a good job of sorting out fact from fiction, and it has found that only a miniscule number of licensed citizens have been involved in serious crimes, and a tiny fraction of armed citizens have had their permits revoked.

We knew all along what Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek told the newspaper: the worst predictions of gun control advocates who bitterly fought to keep this law off the books just havent come true. Were delighted that the press, which did not support the law, has at least acknowledged the publics right to know how the law is working.

Minnesota is just one more state where people have been given the opportunity to pass a law and see how it really works. The states legally-armed citizens have proven not only that they are overwhelmingly responsible with firearms, the data shows that providing the means for citizens to go armed is not a threat to public safety, and never has been.

Concluded Waldron, The Personal Protection Act (in Minnesota) has succeeded in destroying the myth that legally-armed citizens are somehow a threat to the general public. We knew they were wrong, and now everybody else knows it, too.

In the 19th century, Coffeyville, Kansas and Northfield, Minnesota were quiet, safe towns where no one might have thought ordinary citizens needed gunsuntil they were robbed by violent, professional robbery gangs from out of town. One of those gangs was led by Jesse James and Cole Younger, and the other consisted primarily of the infamous Dalton brothers. Both gangs were shot to pieces by armed townsfolk acting in defense of themselves and their communities.

In the early 20th century, the automobile allowed criminals to range even more widely. The John Dillinger/Baby Face Nelson gangs made a specialty of robbing small town banks and escaping in their high-speed Hudsons and Ford V8s. They, too, felt the sting of armed citizens gunfire. When robbing a bank in South Bend, Indiana, Baby Face Nelson and Homer Van Meter, both hardened cop-killers, were shot and wounded by a jeweler with a .22 target handgun. Nelson was saved by his bullet proof vest, and Van Meter, while knocked senseless by the bullet that ricocheted off his skull, would have been killed if the shooters aim had been truer by an inch, or if the armed citizen had launched a more appropriate round. In another bank robbery, John Dillinger and accomplice John Hamilton were each shot in the right shoulder by a retired judge, armed with an antique revolver and firing from a window across the street.