Concealed Carry Everywhere Essay Example for Free

Concealed Carry Everywhere Essay Since the beginning of our nation after the Declaration of Independence was signed, individuals have had the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Inside these ‘rights’ is the right to bear arms. Is that wrong? Should all people have access to firearms? As stated in the second amendment, we as a nation and individuals have every right to own our own weapons. Therefore, it is your right to either own a weapon or not. There are some who buy a gun, put it in their gun cabinet, and never look at it again for years. Others shoot their guns regularly at ranges, take it to go on a hunting trip, or keep it close to their bed at night if they live in areas with a high crime rate, and these are all practices of using a gun that are considered to be proper uses. On the other hand, there are those who obtain them illegally and use them to harm, murder, rape, or put fear in other citizens. Most states offer a concealed handgun license that you can get when you turn twenty-one by going through the right course in order for you to carry a weapon around legally. The right to bear arms is an important symbol of an individual’s freedoms that our founding fathers established for those who understood the proper and improper uses when you bear arms, and anyone or anything trying to take that away is morally unjust and unconstitutional. If you live in a suburb or rural area surrounding a city you usually do not live in fear of someone trying to rob, hurt, or attack you while you are walking down a street. Yet it is still good to keep a firearm around just in case one of these scenarios occur. If you live in a city with a good amount of people, it is a totally different story. We do not live in the wild west anymore so it would be uncommon to see a man walking down the street strapped up with shotguns and pistols looking like he is going to war. Now that we live in the twenty-first century we have certain laws that require you to get a concealed handgun license. Carrying a concealed weapon doesn’t mean that someone is planning on using the gun to rob a bank or hold up a gas station, it is just a citizen arming themselves the legal way just in case they need to use it to protect themselves or anyone in danger. Giving citizens the chance to get these licenses shows trust, our individual freedoms, and â€Å"it is part of the reason why we have a lower crime rate† (Bush) than we would if we didn’t have citizens with licenses. In highly populated areas across the U. S. there is always going to be a high crime rate due to the amount of people crowded into one area. In every major city there are one or more major college universities. Almost all colleges have a ban on the allowance of guns on campus, and this is partly due to the Students for Gun Free Schools (SGFS). According to statistics pulled from an SGFS essay there is â€Å"an undeniable fact that college causes typically have a lower crime rate than the cities in which they reside. † Some people believe that this is all because guns are not allowed on campus, but I believe that this counter argument is not necessarily true. Most of the reasons that crime rates are lower are because it is a college campus, not a city. The crimes that occur there are mostly thefts and assaults, but not murder and rape. This is because at a college campus there are a bunch of young like-minded individuals who would help a person in need if they saw something wrong happening. However, just because you can carry around a weapon does not mean that you should go to a highly populated area such as malls, airports, sport events, bars, clubs, and banks with your weapon. Even professionals whose job it is to teach concealed handgun courses believe that there are certain times you should carry your weapon and times when you shouldn’t, for the safety of the general public. By bringing your weapon into a crowded public area you can put every individual in the vicinity in danger. Any situation can turn into mass chaos if shots are fired by a gunman and police because bullets miss their intended targets. Many people believe that since the states adopted the CCW right (concealed carry weapon right) that there has been an increase in killings and violent crime rates. In all actuality the states that allow these rights have seen violent crime and murder rates go down, significantly. Florida is one of 40 states with the â€Å"right-to-carry† statutes that give citizens the ability to carry concealed handguns with the proper license†, and this lets citizens â€Å"stand their ground and fight back when attacked. †(Bush). It is funny that George Bush said that because he brings a good topic up. When there is a chance for good citizens to own their own weapons it gives them a chance to stop crime. According to Executive Director Joe Waldron of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA). â€Å"Isn’t it ironic that while Florida, with an armed citizenry, is enjoying a drop in crime, and Washington, D.  C. , where citizens are legally disarmed, is experiencing a crime epidemic? †(Waldron). This shows how being able to carry a concealed weapon can really be to the benefit of the individual and the community. The concealed carry group is not the ones committing the crimes. A big reason that citizens get these licenses is because they’ve heard stories in their communities of theft and break-ins or it is something that their family believes in. They are just trying to protect themselves, their loved ones, friends, and those whom they have never met. This makes them more of a guardian than the supposed wrong doers with guns. This is a fact, most of the gun carriers are just trying to keep the ones around them safe, â€Å"of the 2. 5 million times citizens use their guns to defend themselves every year, the overwhelming majority merely brandish their gun or fire a warning shot to scare off their attackers. Less than 8% of the time, a citizen will kill or wound his/her attacker (Synder). † When you are trained in the course they also teach you basic firing and aiming skills. When you are attacked and provoked to the point where you or someone else is in danger, the gun carrier knows different places he or she can shoot someone to only wound them until the authorities arrive. The opportunity to bear arms runs deeper than being able to stop burglars, murderers, and rapists. It is about the idea of being able to save a life. The feeling one person can get when they know they have done the right thing is something that is irreplaceable and something they will never forget. It also gives you a certain confidence or swagger that helps you sleep at night knowing you can protect yourself and others. When you hear news reports, or read articles attacking gun owners saying that â€Å"we shouldn’t own guns† think twice about who is writing it and why. These arguments are nothing more than attacks on our basic individual rights. H. L. Mencken said it best when he says, â€Å"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule it†, and this meaning that things are fine the way they are, and we shouldn’t try to change it. If there is a legal way to get a weapon in order to protect the public, then those who are brave enough to take the challenge should be allowed this privilege.