The Following is a Paper I wrote for School A few weeks ago.


Benjamin Franklin said “Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither.”

No one ever said freedom was safe. In fact, upon true realization and understanding of the concepts of freedom, you shall realize that true freedom is actually the most dangerous choice of lifestyle. There are no guaranties in freedom. The only security one can have in a truly free environment is security they provide for themselves at their own will. True freedom comes with extreme personal risk. Are you willing to take the risk?

Last year, in Wisconsin, the “concealed carry” law passed, allowing people who attain the proper license to carry a concealed firearm. I believe that this is a step in the right direction, giving the law abiding citizen the freedom to defend themselves against a criminal. The concealed carry law serves as more of a crime deterrent. What kind of criminal would attempt to victimize a citizen that might be able to effectively defend themselves against the crime? Criminals already have blatant disregard for the law, and in the case where guns would be made illegal by the law, do you really think that criminals would just give up their guns based on the laws they already disregard? No! The only persons affected by oppressive gun control laws is the law abiding citizen, whom, in that case, would no longer be able to effectively defend themselves against the illegal gun toting criminal. In fact, the U.S. Department of Justice conducted research on 2000 felons. Of these felons, it was found that 34% had been “wounded or captured by an armed victim”, and 40% admitted that they had been deterred from committing a crime in the first place because they feared the potential victim was armed.

As of March 2012, there are only 2 places in the U.S. that have prohibited concealed carry; Washington D.C., and Illinois. Go look up the crime rates in those places yourself, Chicago in particular. There are different classifications that states can use to establish their concealed carry laws. There are “Shall Issue” states, where issuing authorities are required to issue a permit to any applicant that meets the objective statutory criteria. There are “may issue” states, which are stricter than the fore mentioned because of how they classify certain disqualifying felonies, or they have different firearms training requirements. And finally there are “no permit required” states. Four states fall into this category, including Vermont, Wyoming, Arizona and Alaska.

Florida has set the standard for the “shall issue” model. Since they adopted a concealed carry law in 1987, the overall crime rate has dropped 32% and the homicide rate has dropped 58%. Also, by 2009, Florida had issued 1.36 million permits, of which only 165 had been revoked due to crimes by the permit holder. I would say that those numbers speak scores as to the reliability and discretion of the eligibility requirements, as well as to the effectiveness of such laws overall. ¬

Criminals are criminals, and they will always be a part of this world. Sure, we can imagine, and work towards an ideal future, but In order to achieve this ideal future, we must take into consideration the reality we actually exist in today, without the ideals. Unless one can travel back in time, and un-invent the gun, guns are going to be a permanent part of our reality. We must consider this in our imagined ideal future, and integrate them into our vision. I believe that the concealed carry laws are moving us closer to this realization. Remember, there are no guarantees in true freedom. How free do you want to be?