Huffington Post
Before the ink was even dry on the 2008 Heller decision, the gun
lobby began to agitate for an extension of this Second Amendment right
to keep a gun in the home for self-defense to carrying concealed weapons
outside the home as well. The CCW movement, as it is called, spread
throughout the United States but with the exception of five states --
AK, AR, AZ, VT, WY. The residents of all the other 45 states must
receive a permit for CCW that is separate from any licensing required
simply to own a gun.
It's estimated
that somewhere around 10 million people now have CCW permits, or
roughly 10 percent of the people who admit to legal ownership of guns.
To listen to the gun lobby you would think that armed citizens are
responsible for the continued decline in violent crime, even though it's
anyone's guess as to how many people are actually walking around armed
each day. In 2013, roughly 450 people used guns in what is referred to as "justifiable homicide," while that same year at least 500 people accidentally killed
themselves or others with guns. The FBI and CDC numbers may be a
little off, but this is the only apples-to-apples comparison that can be
made about whether guns help us or hurt us -- and please don't waste my
time with the nonsense about how millions of crimes are prevented each
year by people walking around with guns.
This hasn't stopped the NRA from endlessly screaming
that "good guys" with guns will always stop "bad guys" with guns to the
point that the movement to issue everyone a CCW license has now begun
to shift to the idea that we should be able to walk around with guns,
concealed or unconcealed at our option, with no licensing required at
all. Called "constitutional carry," as opposed to "concealed carry,"
the loudest and most active proponents of this new credo can be found
in the Lone Star State where this nutty idea sprang from a group of
dissident NRA members who took issue with the gun organization's refusal
to back the open carry of handguns. And the result was a series of
guerrilla-theater events at which these dopes paraded
outside and inside stores and fast-food franchises toting their ARs and
AKs to show that they had the constitutional right to behave like
jerks.
Debate Magazine
