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Concealed Guns - Pros & Cons - ProCon.org Home More IssuesFAQs Teachers’ Corner Concealed Handguns Should Adults Have the Right to Carry a Concealed Handgun? Last updated on: 12/23/2020 | Author: ProCon.org Carrying a concealed handgun in public is permitted in all 50 states as of 2013, when Illinois became the last state to enact concealed carry legislation. Some states require gun owners to obtain permits while others have unrestricted carry” and do not require permits. Proponents of concealed carry say concealed carry deters crime, keeps individuals and the public safer, is protected by the Second Amendment, and protect women and minorities who can’t always rely on the police for protection. Opponents of concealed carry say concealed carry increases crime, increases the chances of a confrontation becoming lethal, is not protected by the Second Amendment, and that public safety should be left to professionally qualified police officers. Read more background… Pro & Con Arguments Pro 1 Concealed handguns deter crime. In a landmark study that analyzed FBI crime data, John R. Lott, Jr., PhD, found that states that implemented shall-issue concealed carry laws reduced murders by 8.5%, rapes by 5%, aggravated assaults by 7%, and robberies by 3%. Lott calculated that 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes, 60,000 aggravated assaults, and 12,000 robberies could have been prevented between 1977 and 1992 if concealed carry had been legal in every US state during that time period. [ 8 ] John Malcolm, JD, Vice President of the Institute for Constitutional Government, and Amy Swearer, JD, Visiting Legal Fellow at the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, stated, Between 2007 and 2015, murder rates dropped 16 percent and violent crime rates dropped 18 percent, even though the percentage of adults with concealed carry permits rose by 190 percent.” They continued, Regression estimates show a significant association between increased permit ownership and a drop in murder and violent crime rates. Each percentage point increase in rates of permit-holding is associated with a roughly 2.5 percent drop in the murder rate.” [ 92 ] Read More Pro 2 Carrying a concealed gun keeps the individual carrying the gun and the public safer. Larry Keane, JD, Senior Vice President for Government & Public Affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, stated, Although the news stories rarely get coverage beyond their immediate media market, individuals with legally concealed carry firearms have successfully protected themselves and have come to the assistance of their fellow citizens on numerous occasions. They have also aided law enforcement officers who were in grave danger. As the number of permits holders has risen there has not been a ‘Wild West’ of reckless gunfire that the anti-gun activists have long predicted.” [ 95 ] According to Amy Swearer, JD, Legal Fellow at the Meese Center, and Cooper Conway, a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation, Americans defend themselves with their firearms between 500,000 and 3 million times every year. It’s unclear how many of these defensive gun uses involve concealed-carry permit holders carrying in public places, but our own records show that concealed-carry permit holders can and do save lives.” They continue, Moreover, concealed-carry permit holders have intervened to stop many scenarios that likely would have turned into mass killings but for their actions.” [ 96 ] Read More Pro 3 The right to carry concealed handguns is protected by the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment states: a well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” [ 53 ] The federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, in the Dec. 11, 2012 case Moore v. Madigan, ruled that the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms must be interpreted to include a right to have a concealed gun in public, to have it ready for use, and to have it for self-defense.” [ 55 ] The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Hawaii’s restrictive carry policies in July 2018. The ruling stated, We do not take lightly the problem of gun violence. But, for better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense.” [ 98 ] Joseph Greenlee, JD, Director of Research at the Firearms Policy Coalition, explained, The Supreme Court has elucidated that the scope of the Second Amendment is defined by the founding-era understanding of the right, as informed by American history and tradition. A historical analysis shows that both concealed and open carry are protected by the right, and that a government may only restrict one if the other remains available for law-abiding citizens to exercise.” [ 99 ] Read More Pro 4 Concealed handguns protect women and minorities who can’t always rely on the police for protection. David French, senior writer at the National Review and a veteran of the Iraq War, explained, when you [concealed] carry your weapon, you don’t feel intimidated, you feel empowered. In a way that’s tough to explain, the fact that you’re so much less dependent on the state for your personal security and safety makes you feel more ‘free’ than you’ve ever felt before.” [ 100 ] John R. Lott, Jr., PhD, found that, between 2012, and 2018, the percent of women with permits grew 111% faster for women and the percent of blacks with permits grew 20% faster than for whites. Permits for Asians grew 29% faster than for whites.” [ 101 ] Women who have been victimized as adults were more likely to own a gun, more likely to own more than one gun, and more likely to carry a gun for protection. [ 102 ] According to Pew Research, women are slightly more likely to report owning a gun for protection (71% to 65%), but men report owning guns for more activities (hunting, sports shooting, etc) and men report owning more types of guns (shotguns and rifles rather than just a handgun) than women, so women are more likely to own handguns only for protection. [ 103 ] Jim Curcuruto, Director of Research and Market Development at the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said, of the increase in gun sales during the 2020 civil rights movement, The highest overall firearm sales increase comes from Black men and women, who show a 58.2% increase in purchases during the first six months of 2020 versus the same period last year,” [ 104 ] As Bruce Tomlin, a Black gun owner, explained to NPR, I just feel like in my viewpoint, every Black person in America, especially Black males, needs to have some type of protection with them as often as [they] can, because I think the political climate [is] getting to the point where it’s just going to be a lot of violence coming our way. I just feel safer now having a gun. And I didn’t always feel that way. I’ve never been the world’s biggest fan of guns, but I just don’t feel safe without one… I’d rather go to trial than go to the cemetery” [ 105 ] Read More Con 1 Concealed guns increase crime. A 2018 study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded, There is not even the slightest hint in the data that RTC [right-to-carry] laws reduce violent crime. Indeed, the weight of the evidence from the panel data estimates as well as the synthetic control analysis best supports the view that the adoption of RTC laws substantially raises overall violent crime in the ten years after adoption.” The authors found, Ten years after the adoption of RTC laws, violent crime is estimated to be 13 [percent to] 15 percent higher than it would have been without the RTC law.” [ 93 ] [ 94 ] A 1995 study of five urban cities, published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, concluded that gun homicide rates increased on average by 4.5 per 100,000 persons” following the enactment of shall-issue” laws. [ 12 ] A May 2009 study found that shall-issue” laws were associated with increased numbers of aggravated assaults between 1977 and...