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Persuasive Essay on Concealed Weapons

Laws
• 1154 Words • 5 Pages

Persuasive Essay on Concealed Weapons

Laws

Just imagine for a moment if you would. You

Just finished a long hard week of work, and
you are looking forward to the reward of
going out for a night on the town. You go
home get cleaned up, put on your sharpest
outfit and head over to your dates house to
pick her up. Nothing could be more perfect.
The evening air is the right temperature with
just enough breeze to catch your cologne
and waft it through the air. And the evening
itself is enough to remember because of the
moons reflection off of the newly harvested
fields and ever-flowing creeks. It would seem
as though this would be the perfect setting to
a wonderful date. And yes it would be,
except for the traumatic experience, which
encountered one of my closest friends on the
ride home, after dropping his date off. He
was on his way home and in between towns
when my friend saw a truck pulled over to the
side of the road. Hood up, doors open, and
the truck itself turned towards the ditch on
the side of the road. Being from the small
town he was from he believed in always
giving a helping hand to those in need.
Especially when he knew people in his
community had been there for him before in
his time of crises. He was flagged down by
an individual that had told him they had a
blow out on their vehicle and that the
passenger was injured and would greatly
appreciate his help. My friend stepped out of
the vehicle and around the passenger side of
the parked truck, and before he knew it he
had a gun drawn upon his chest and a man
now demanding money instead of help. My
friend complied and gave the man his wallet
and money he had just earned to get him
through the weeks ahead. The assailant then
ordered my friend to turn his back toward him
and walk back to his vehicle. When my friend
heard this he knew it meant his life was in
eminate danger and if he turned around he
was as sure as shot. So when he started
backing up facing the assailant heading
toward his vehicle, WHAM he was hit. He
told me impact of the bullet felt like he was
hit by a sledgehammer and it's piercing of his
skin felt as though a white hot poker had
been rammed through him. The assailant left
Privacy - Terms
my friend for dead not realizing he had not
fatally wounded him. My friend did fully
recover but still has the scars to remember
what had happened that night.

When my friend first told me this story, I

always though it was ironic how at the time
conceal to carry laws in Texas, where this
incident took place, were months away from
being passed. I always pondered the idea
what if he were allowed to carry a gun at the
time this happened. Or even if he didn?t
want to carry one, would it of deterred this
individual from attacking my friend based on
the premonition that he may have one on his
person. Today there are many crimes in
which I believe would be deterred and in fact
be drastically reduced if we were to impose
conceal and carry laws in this state.

Today 31 states now have right to carry laws,

respecting the fundamental individual right of
self-defense by allowing people to carry
firearms for protection against criminals. 127
million Americans, nearly half the u.s.
population, including 60% of handgun
owners, live in right to carry states (H.
Sterling). In a landmark study Prof. John r.
Lott and David B. Mustard of the University
of Chicago, found that allowing citizens to
carry concealed weapons deters violent
crimes and it appears to produce no increase
in accidental deaths. If those states which did
not have right to carry concealed gun
provisions had adopted them in 1992,
approximately 1,570 murders; 4177 rapes;
and over 60,000 aggravated assaults would
have been avoided yearly. On the average,
right to carry states have 26% less total
violent crime, 20% less homicide, 2%less
rape, 39% less robbery and 22% less
aggravated assault.

Many people today have many

misconceptions about the right to carry laws
being enacted. Take for example of Texas.
Before implementing their right to carry laws
many citizens raised questions about minor
incidents escalating into killings as the
concealed carry law placed more guns in
irresponsible hands. Concerns that were also
raised were that criminals would be
undeterred by an increase in armed citizens.
Both of these predictions were wrong.
According to the Violence Policy Center,
Licensees were 5.7 times less likely to be
arrested for violent offenses than the general
public, which amounts to 127 persons per
100,000 versus 730 per 100,000. Licensees
were 13.5 times less likely to be arrested for
non-violent offenses than the general public
386 per 100,000 versus 5,212 per 100,000.
No licensee had yet been arrested for
negligent manslaughter.

If the law were to be proposed for this state

many would ask what are some of the strict
guidelines which would be imposed to be a
permit holder. Almost all states follow this set
of standards. One must be 21 years of age,
submit a photo and fingerprints for a
background check, pay a training fee and
take more than eight hours of course work. In
addition to these preliminary processing
steps, applicants must pass both a written
test covering laws pertaining to deadly force
and gun safety, and a shooting accuracy test.

In the early 1990's Texas' serious crime rate

was 38 percent above the national average.
Since then serious crime in Texas has
dropped 50% faster than for the nation as a
whole. Texas is just one of the few states that
has seen great results from this bill being
enacted despite some of the public's
concerns for what turned out to be
misconstrued thoughts and ideas. Just as in
Florida a few years back when their conceal
to carry law was enacted, and results were
blatantly obvious when the criminals were no
longer attacking local citizens. But moving on
to the individuals they knew couldn't carry
concealed weapons, the tourists. That's why
so many rental car agencies have tried to
conceal their cars as not being part of any
type of rental agency, for their customers
protection.

The information in this speech was intended

to make you think a little bit more about
society and the preventative measures we
can take to deter some of the crimes
committed today. I just wanted to clear up
any of the misconceptions or preconceived
notions you may or may not of had about
concealed weapons laws. So next time a bill
is proposed in the state make sure you know
all of the facts before it gets vetoed. Thank-
you