MaKenzie Beck
July 24, 2014
Argument/Position Essay
Citizen’s Right
Guns, a topic often accompanied by passionate opinions. For years
the issue of gun control has been a concern in the United States for the
individuals who believe in gun rights and for those who believe in their
restrictions. There is the debate between those that think too many guns with
little restriction through law adds to more violence and danger in society and
then those who believe that violence will be bad weather restrictions are put
on guns or not, but feel that firearms add to the individuals’ chances of
protection. This desire for protection is where carrying concealed handguns
lends assistance. Most law abiding citizens who carry concealed guns, do not do
so with the intent to go and shoot someone, but rather they carry as a
precaution, in the off chance someone threatens them they have protection. The
end to this gun debate will not be seen for a long time, because there will
always be people on one side who believe that guns are dangerous and should be
abolished, and those on the other side who know guns are dangerous but
understand them as a tool of protection. I feel it is important that law
abiding citizens have the right to carry concealed handguns, because when danger
arises it is often up to the individuals to protect themselves and those around
them.
Law abiding citizens who carry concealed handguns
have the ability to protect as well as prevent/stop killing sprees. There are numerous
accounts of lives saved because an individual was a carry concealed permit
holder “When Kevin Mclaughlin entered the
Dollar General in Orrville, Alabama, he probably did not expect it would be the
last thing he would ever do. Brandishing a pistol, the man began herding people
into the breakroom. But concealed permit holder Marlo Ellis waited until the
right moment to gun down the potential murderer, which led many to call him a
‘Good Samaritan’ and a truehero.”(Becker)
The lives saved that day were a blessing, but it also brings to mind the many
massacres that have taken place in the U.S. through the years and one tends to
ask the question, if one of those victims would have been carrying would loved
ones still be alive. I do believe the killing sprees casualties would not have
been as great if the at least one of the victims were carrying.
Unlike myself, gun control activists believe that having a carry
concealed permit makes handguns more accessible to various citizens, and thus
allows the crime rate to increase. This is a valid fear, when dangerous weapons
become more accessible, dangerous people will find ways to acquire and use
them. Plus when one understands that every state in the U.S. has their own
requirements to obtain a carry conceal permit, it allows individuals who should
not have the privilege of carrying get one. This gives pause to concerned
individuals, the thought that people who may cause harm intentional or
accidental, is a scary thought! A key example of this fear coming true was in
two thousand and eleven Simons, a North Carolina man, was riding bicycles with
his family when a man in an SUV named Diez started hassling them. Simons came
to a stop on his bike followed by the vehicle. Simons walked over to the
vehicle to talk with the Diez, but what he found was Diez holding a gun to his
face and threatening to “shoot” and “kill” him. Then when Simons turned to
leave he heard a bang, the bullet went through his bike helmet, miraculously
just missing Simons left ear. (LUO) Diez is exactly the kind
of person one does not want carrying a concealed weapon because without a
reason he was ready to kill an innocent man in front of his family. I
understand the gun control activists desire to limit gun control because of
this story, I would not want mentally unstable individuals like Diez who could
flip out and threaten a life at any moment have the power of a gun.
In continuing his article, about the danger of carrying
concealed, MICHAEL LUO wrote “Mr. Diez, as it
turned out, was one of more than 240,000 people in North Carolina with a permit
to carry a concealed handgun… The New York Times examined the permit program in
North Carolina, one of a dwindling number of states where the identities of
permit holders remain public. The review, encompassing the last five years,
offers a rare, detailed look at how a liberalized concealed weapons law has
played out in one state... More than 2,400 permit holders were convicted of
felonies or misdemeanors, excluding traffic-related crimes, over the five-year
period, The Times found when it compared databases of recent criminal court
cases and licensees. While the figure represents a small percentage of those
with permits, more than 200 were convicted of felonies, including at least 10
who committed murder or manslaughter. All but two of the killers used a gun.”
(Luo). Though the situation Simons had to face was awful, and there are more
like it, in his article Luo references a New York Times statistics on the carry
concealed in North Carolina but the credibility of these statistics as Nick
Leghorn in his article, ‘NY Times Proves Concealed Carry License Holders More
Law-Abiding Than the Population. Unintentionally.’, points out “this
analysis is based on the Times’numbers which they stated without
referencing any sources, leaving us to take their word for their validity and
leaving us no ability to double check their work.”(Leghorn) the lack of facts
and citations in the Time’s article reflects Luo’s article and marks it
untrustworthy.
Carrying a concealed handgun is sometimes crucial
to one’s individual safety, especially for women. Though it is important to
call the police, one must take into consideration that the average response
time is ten minutes (APB Staff), that is crucial time, so one must take
precautions to protect their individual needs. In Washington, since two
thousand and five, more than one hundred thousand of the four hundred and fifty
one thousand, residents who are allowed to carry concealed handguns are women,
“a common concern... with women who carry: the importance of self-defense.” (Rosenthal). These
women are admirable, they understand that danger is always a possibility and
that their safety and life may depend on a carry concealed handgun.
The gun control activist and founder of Moms
Demand Action, Shannon Watts recently wrote an
article about how gun laws are not helping women safety. She states “American
women are 11 times more likely to be murdered with guns than women in other
high-income countries. On average, 46 women are shot to death by a current or
former husband or boyfriend every month. And those mass shootings that that
occur in America with startling regularity? Fifty-seven percent of them
involve domestic violence.” (Watts) Watts may have a point with the statistics,
but she makes women seem like helpless beings who simply sicum to abuse. Women
in America are just as capable of carrying a gun for their protection as a man
is for offencive purposes. Another thing Watts does not mention is that if a
man wants to hurt a women, with or without a gun, he will find a way. “If there
were no assault weapons available and no this or no that, this guy is going to
find something, right?,” (GOLDBERG). Men are
simply the stronger more aggressive sex and every women should be able to
defend herself from them. When women carry concealed handguns they allow
themselves a fighting chance to protect and defend their well being.
It is my opinion that the privilege to carry a
concealed handgun, belongs to every law abiding citizen, because it is their
right to protect themselve and others from danger. Guns are dangerous and
can be harmful if placed in the wrong hands, as gun control activist believe
and are right in doing so. Individuals do get threatened, hurt, and killed when
guns are found in the wrong hands, however the solution to this is not applying
stricter gun laws, but rather to make the use of carry concealed handguns
common for law abiding citizens so that more people can protect themselves.
Whether one uses a carry concealed handgun to protect the individuals
surrounding them from a massacre or the weapon is a tool of self defence one
has the ability to protect and that is every law abiding citizen’s right.
Cited Work
Becker, “Armed
Man Gathers People Together in Dollar General Breakroom, but Concealed Carry
Holder Saves Them”
Leghorn, “NY
Times Proves Concealed Carry License Holders More Law-Abiding Than the
Population. Unintentionally.”
APB Staff,
“Response times- city to city”
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