Beans Wit Attitude: Concealed Carry Part 1

As of March, 2009, I was totally against guns: owning them, buying them, whatever. I just wanted them off the street.

Then I read a sixteen-year study performed by John Lott. The study found that areas where concealed carry was allowed had lower rates of crime. In 1992, this was the first comprehensive, lengthy study done on the issue. I was totally convinced, did a 180, and started to think concealed carry was a good thing.

Then I ‘googled’ John Lott. He has been a huge NRA supporter his whole life.

Can I get someone to do a study that isn’t emotionally involved or politically tied?
This continued to happen as I searched other concealed carry studies, getting mixed results. But again, I continued to find that the only people performing these studies had ties to gun laws in the past. Doesn’t that affect what you will put in the study and what you leave out? I found no middle ground in any of the studies; guns were either good or bad.

Wanted: an old, grizzly, hard-nosed professor from some boring Ivy League university that will conduct an unbiased study and include anything and everything they find. Put it all into a big, fancy equation and give us an answer. You will receive a hefty salary.

Since we don’t have any legit studies with any uncompromising conclusions, I am forced to nit-pick and deal with crazy scenarios people dream up when debating concealed carry laws. And living in Illinois, where it has become a more pressing issue at the Capitol recently, the debate comes up a lot.

Even further, there is talk of concealed carry being allowed on university campuses. In my Public Relations Reporting class, where half of the students work at the school newspaper, it has become a hot-button issue of discussion.

First, let me start with concealed carry laws. I am in moderately in favor of concealed carry, but I am still very torn on the issue. I do believe, in most cases, that concealed carry would deter crime. Although John Lott is a gun-nut, there are facts from his study and others like his that cannot be ignored:

In states where concealed carry was allowed in 1992, an average of less than 2% actually obtained permits. In Florida, only 444,000 were granted in 10 years. By 1997, only half of those people were still licensed because they failed to renew their permit. Of those 444,000, only 84 lost their permits due to a felony of using a firearm.

This part of the study found that crime went down in Florida, but I see a deeper meaning to these numbers: if only a small number of people are actually taking advantage of the permits, then why not have them? The people getting these permits are not felons with a criminal record, for they cannot buy guns anyway. They are law-abiding citizens who feel they could benefit from having a weapon. How many of them actually used those guns to defend themselves? I would say not very many.

So let us say that 1 in 100 Florida citizens bought guns. That would mean that 1 out of 100 citizens that get mugged would have a gun in the rare occurrence, pending they bothered bringing their gun that day. Now, how many criminals do you think know that number? Again, very few.

The fact: we don’t add many more guns and still scare the criminals. People have this idea that there would be shoot-outs in the street every day. But the fact is that not many will actually buy a gun. Would you personally buy a gun if you could? I know I wouldn’t. I don’t have enough time or money to care that much, and I reside in a town a high rate of crime.

This is a limited amount of information, and without a sufficient study, I cannot come to an accurate conclusion.

The next part of this series will deal with hypothetical situations and all-out bans on guns.