Concealed Carry

Concealed Carry by Shane Hurkmans
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Concealed carry is a law that a person can lawfully carry a gun, knife, mace or other harmful weapons out of normal view. Some states have a permit to carry, this means, officials of that state can refuse, or grant this permit for any arbitrary reason. Other states have a right to carry. This means that officials must issue a permit, if you pass a background check and pay a fee. If gun laws don’t change in other states that have a denied to carry, the crime rate may be higher and higher in coming years. It’s a fact that if gun laws like concealed carry are taken out of the country, like Australia, the crime rate will sky rocket.

In a criminology publication “Homicide in Australia 1989-96”, page 6 shows quite clearly that the “tough” gun laws in the Northern Territory correspond with the highest murder rate in the county. Meanwhile, Tasmania, with the slackest gun laws in Australia, has the second lowest homicide rate in the nation. If “gun control” did in fact save lives then the opposite would have to be true. (The Great)

This is what I found on the Internet about this matter, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology, as reported in “Trends & Issues, May 1997” Where guns have been taken out by laws, the suicide rate was targeted for the gun control, then after the gun law was put into effect, the suicide rate still stayed the
same.

Canada implemented new law on firearms in 1977. In a before-after study for the years 1969 to 1985, Lester and Leenaars found that while the number of suicides by firearms declined after the introduction of the new law, the overall suicide rate in Canada increased. (The Great)

Another source, “The American Journal of Psychiatry March 1990”, Rich, Young, Fowler, and Black. In a before-after study for the years 1969 to 1985, Lester and Leenaars found that making guns less available does not reduce suicide but merely causes the person seeking death to use another means. While gun-related suicides were reduced by Canada’s handgun ban of 1976, the overall suicide rate did not go down at all: the gun- related suicides were replaced 100% by an increase in other types of suicide, mostly jumping off bridges. (The Great)

A source from Vital Statistics of Canada and Causes of Death. The presence or absence of gun controls has had no impact on the suicide rate, especially for persons under the age of 24 in Canada. It was an average of 50% lower in the decades preceding the introduction of restrictive gun control in 1978 (The Gun)

With this, can we believe that guns are the source of all the deaths in a state or country? No, with gun laws in place the suicide is still as high or higher than before in Australia from 1979 to 1994 a graph on page 9, the number of gun owners and the homicides clearly shows that the homicide rate was down when the people owned the guns. A 20% increase in violent crime was noted by John Lott of the AEI Press. Other things noted in this press release.

It would be simple enough just to blame Australia’s high crime rates on its largely English heritage or its convict history, but for much of the past century Australia had lower crime rates than the US or the UK. Violent crime rates have gone up dramatically in Australia since the 1996 Port Arthur gun control measures. And violent crime rates averaged 20 per cent higher in the six years after the law was passed (from 1997 to 2002) than they did in 1996, 32 per cent higher than the violent crime rates in 1995. The same comparisons for armed robbery rates showed increases of 67 percent and 74 per cent, respectively. For aggravated assault, 20 percent and 32 percent for rape, 12 percent murder. Attempted murder and manslaughter rose by 5 per cent in both cases. Perhaps six years of crime data is just not enough to evaluate the experience. (Loft)

With this can we assume that guns are the cause of the crime rate? I think people should have the right to carry a weapon without the country telling them if they can or can’t. This past year, the Wisconsin government voted not to let the concealed carry law pass. Why should we not carry a weapon? If this keeps up, more and more states and countries will go for a ban on all guns. I think safety will save more lives than gun laws that take the guns out of people’s hands. Hunter safety should be taught to school kids. We should show them what to do with a gun if they find one. If this was done I think that kids would do the safe thing and get an older person, rather than playing with a gun. I’m not saying if we teach the kids an accident is not going to happen, but I think there will be fewer accidents. I also think if you don’t know who’s carrying a weapon, the more someone will think twice before doing harm or breaking into a place. Would you break in and try to rob someone if there was a chance of being shot or killed?

Works Cited
Lou, John, Weapons Laws ban miss the mark. The Australian March 24 2004. April 19 2004.
www.theaustralisan.new.com.ua/printpage/0,5942,9055280.0O.html.

How the States Respect the Second Amendment. JRWhipple.com, Politics/Carry concealed. JRWhipple & Associates 15 March 2004. www.jrwhiyple.comlguns/firearm_ccwmap.html.

The Great Australian Gun Law Con. Wilmoth, Ross A.,compiler. The Safety Con,
The less guns= less deaths con. The reduction in suicide con 15 March 2004. www.members ozemail. corn. au/-confiles/confiles.html.

http://wisconsincoyotehunters.com