Concealed Carry

One area of gun control which has many different approaches to is concealed carry. According to a recent Rasmussen report, 47% of adults oppose "open carry" laws. While it may seem like a straightforward "Yes or No" issue, there are many in-betweens. First of all, there are four different jurisdictions which dictate concealed carry.

Unrestricted- No permit required to carry

Shall Issue- Permit shall be issued if certain requirements are met

May Issue- A permit can be issued, but only by local authorities, and if requirements are met

No Issue- Illegal to publicly carry a firearm.

As of September 5th, 36 states are shall issue. 10 (Including California & New York) are may issue. Arizona, Alaska, and Vermont are unrestricted, and only the District of Columbia, Wisconsin, and Illinois are no issue.

My opinion on it is this: I'm comfortable with Illinois' status, most likely because I have lived here my whole life and I'm used to it. I think that, hypothetically, if two people were in a heated dispute (or even not heated; it could just be a stupid argument) and guns were involved, things would get messy pretty quick. Just thinking about my experiences here on campus- I see people doing stupid things (including myself sometimes), and if a gun were injected some of these situations, they would most likely end poorly. Especially with alcohol present. If two people were in such a heated argument that they actually did want to shoot each other, the fact that they would have to go all the way home to get their gun is probably enough time for them to calm down about things.

I can see the other side of the argument though. I'm sure that one would be less likely to rob any public place due to the fact that somebody could have a gun on them. Also, think about all of the "Crime Alerts" that have gone out in these first few weeks. If people were able to carry guns on them, I'm sure all these criminals wouldn't be jumping people anymore.

I guess it just comes down to if one is intelligent enough to carry a gun in public...well, not just that. Obviously many factors go into each individual owner, and while reviewing every single gun owner on a case by case basis would be a good thing, it certainly is not going to happen. I'm sure I could take a look at some research done on these factors to come to a more accurate conclusion...maybe tomorrow!






Some other topics I will eventually go over

-Application process for a FOID
-Gun Shows
-2010 Senate / Gubernatorial Candidates & Guns
-International views on guns
-I'll try to eventually (reluctantly) incorporate some quantitative reasoning into some gun-related topic
-Firearm training process
-Firearm crime in Chicago