We are having a debate in my state currently about the use of concealed weapons. One side says it will make the world a better place, and the other says it will be a grave mistake.

What are your opinions?

My question is why do we need to carry around a gun? If I am being held at gun point, will I be able to get my gun out and shoot the person? Or will I get it out and shoot someone else, maybe even me
There are so many places that you can't carry a gun where would you go? I guess the only thing to do would be to drive around, then you'll get road rage and shoot someone.

Live life to the fullest - own a Boxer!

I know at least one other member of Quoteland will be all over me for this, but...

Caring a gun, concealed or not, is an exercise in idiocy.

Hang on, people. If I understand it, this isn't a debate about whether we should have or carry around weapons. The issue is about their concealment.

i.e., Would permitting concealed weapons result in more people carrying around weapons who otherwise might not?

Would the thought of other people having weapons that you couldn't see reduce the amount of crime and violence because you'd be more afraid of retaliation from an old lady with a .38 stashed in her suppost hose?

Would a law against being able to carry a concealed weapon violate the first amendment?

The debate is more about the concealment than it is about weapons in general, no?

Living in a state where having a conceled hand gun is the law is very scary!! And like I stated before, there are MANY places where you can't carry that gun, ie...banks, schools, hospitals, malls, many office buildings, museums, libraries, restuarants, court houses, the list goes on. So why do we need to carry one?

People are still going to carry guns whether or not they have a permit or not.

The argument is not only about concealment, but also about weapons in general, I think.
Look at the UK, where the police don't even carry guns! 5 deaths in one year from handguns. That's just one year!!! Can we compare that to the thousands here in the US?
Why is there this need to carry a gun?

If you don't own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life. Roger Caras

Live life to the fullest - own a Boxer!

Going to throw out my opinion on this topic since it directly affects myself and many of my own friends and family memebers. First off do I believe that people should have the right to carry a concealed weapon? Damn straight I do and I will fight for that right untill the laws in my state are changed. Now I must point out that 1.) I am a woman and a business owner who travels frequently alone at night. 2.) I have been trained in the use of guns since a very young age and would never use one unless my life was in danger. 3.)If people were properly educated about guns there would be many less deaths in the United States by those who find them and accidently discharge them. 4.) NEVER have I left a loaded weapon anywhere a child or anyone else could find and use them. 5.)With a permit to carry a concealed weapon goes the responsibility of proper handling, use, training, and just plain common sense of where and when I carry a gun. Now if this were the case of every person who carried a concealed weapon then we wouldn't be having this debate. Big problem here is that not all people are going to be responsible when it comes to gun ownership but does that mean that those of us who are should have the right taken from us? Perhaps if we lived in a culture where guns were never needed then we wouldn't even be having this debate but there are facts and then there are facts. As for anyone telling me all about guns killing people let me be the first to say I lost a childhood friend in 8th grade to a gunshot to his head(self inflicted when he found a gun at a friends house and put it to his temple), my best friend Francie Welsh, was gunned down at work one night with three rifle shots to her back and head by her ex boyfriend and she was only twenty one years old. My grandmother was murdered by an intruder in her home on July 4th 1964 so I never even had the chance to know her, and I watched as it destroyed an entire family with all the hate, anger, pain, regret, revenge, devestaion, an lastly all the hopelessness left from this one act. So I do have a personal stake in this issue and I can honestly say that I have had first hand knowledge of what people using guns can do to other people. But the basic issue is about being able to carry a concealed weapon, think about this fact, most crimes commited are done so by people using non registered guns. People who have permits to carry concealed weapons are in the minority when it comes to using their guns to kill. The vast majority of people who have permits to carry concealed weapons would never use them because they know that to pull it out means you better be prepared to use it. We also must go through background checks and not have a criminal record or we cannot apply for and recieve a permit to carry. I know that the argument can be made that even one death is one too many, but does the fact that I have the right to carry a concealed weapon mean that I will use it to kill another human being? NO, all it means for me is that if I am ever placed in a position to have to defend my life or that of my child, then your damn straight I will, and I won't aim for the knees! Again I can say I know personally what a gun can do to a human being but a point I'll also add that each of the weapons used in the above examples were not registerd guns nor did the person using them have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. They were just plain evil people and as for the gun used by my young friend the gun owners were responsible for that gun and they should have been placed in jail for leaving a weapon out in a place where a child could have access to it. So it's a fine line here between right and wrong and the right to protect one's self and the lives of their children.
Gemini7tat

"Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, might as well go eat worms.Big fat juicy worms, tiny little skinny worms, worms three times a day. You just bite off their heads and suck in the juice and throw the skins away..Hey...."

Wow, that was a thoroughly(sp?) impressive statement from Gemini7tat. And even though I don't hold your same opinion I would still like to say that you did have a lot of interesting points to make. But I'm still not at all convinced that you are right. The simple fact is that guns, no matter how correctly or incorrectly they are used, are intended to inflict harm. And that is something that I just can't get past. The idea that we as a culture are still attempting to make more accessable(sp?) such a terrible and life threatening invention simply blows my mind. Even if some statistics may say that a concealed weapon law will make crime go down, the fact is we as a nation are giving the ok to . Shouldn't we be growing more peaceful as a people as our country ages. And shouldn't we be trying to put an end to violence rather then basically fighting fire power with more fire power?
I know the arguement that I'm making may not be as sound as Gemini7tat's, or as statistically proven as someone elses. But I don't believe I'm wrong about it. And when it comes to something as life and death as this, for me at least thats good enough.

The problem with carrying a gun concealed is that it only provides useful service if it is exposed, either to threaten violence ("keep walkin' buddy, I'm packin' heat here...") or for actual violence (plug, blam, boom!).

Either way, methinks, in most cases a gun may be a possibility-narrowing device. As a nurse, I've been involved in countless episodes of violence, often by armed attackers. I have never yet needed a weapon like a gun or a knife.

When one is NOT armed, it becomes vital to explore all options to end the situation peacefully. I have found my brain to be a remarkable survival tool in such circumstances. It refuses to allow harm to come to me and is amazingly adept at getting me out alive.

Were I instead to have a weapon, I suspect I would, inevitably, consider ending the situation by bringing out the "peacemaker" and "talkin' some shee-it". It might work, or it might not. Who knows? What I do know is that my trusty ol' brain has never let me down yet, so I'll stick with what works.

Brainpower: the best defence!

Davdoodles
XXX

PS: For those (if any!) who wondered where the heck I've been for the last few weeks, I've been solo-climbing mountains, four of them, in the dead of winter. Lived on them in a tent, got a little frost-bit and scared myself silly on wild traverses on slabbing ice/snow slopes, stuck a crampon into my calf and got completely buried (inside my tent) in a blizzard and had to dig myself out with a cup. It's nice to be home!

Davdoodles,

Just because your brain has never failed you yet does not mean that the time will never come when you will need more than thought and planning an escape. If you're being held at gunpoint, is your brain going to help you threaten the offender? I doubt it.

If you were in a life or death situation where your only chance of survival is to 'kill or be killed' should you be denied the right to carry a lifesaving weapon.

As I believe it has already been stated, most people who use weapons to bring unprovoked harm to others probably are not registered gun owners.

I know that if I were in a situation where I had to defend my own life, I would not want to have my government tell me that I couldn't do that and would just have to pray that I wasn't murdered because there are people who would abuse the privelage.

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"I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood."
-Clarence Darrow

Point 1 - I do not now, nor do I expect to ever, own a gun.

Point 2 - My "second home" growing up was my uncle's house - who was a serious (and cautious) gun owner/collector. At no time did any child or teenager ever get their hands on a gun - loaded or not - without him being by their side and showing it to them. There was no way to get into the locked cases that held his collector's pieces, nor any way to get into the cases that held his hunting rifles and pistols. And yes, he carried a concealed weapon (licensed), and it saved his life several times.

Point 3 - My husband's best friend is also a responsible gun owner, with a carry permit. Many times he has worn his gun into my house (first unloading it and putting the bullets in a case), because it would be more dangerous to have left it in his car on the street. I have NEVER feared for my safety of that of my children's when this man was wearing his weapon.

Point 4 - Gem raised several important issues - namely that the majority of killings are done by UNLICENSED gun owners. The people who legally own and operate guns understand their power and danger. So finding and prosecuting (severely!!!) illegal gun owners, and making it more difficult to traffic in unlicensed weapons seems to be the answer.

Point 5 - As to the idiots who leave loaded guns accessible to children - they deserve every punishment possible on earth and any afterlife there may or may not be. As I said, growing up I spent half my life in a home filled with guns. NEVER was there a possiblity of getting my hands on a loaded weapon. Stupidity is not an excuse.

Yes, I believe (sorry Gem) that there should be regulations, safety locks, etc, to make it harder to own and shoot a gun. But it is possible to be a gun owner and still be responsible and safe.

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Tell the Moon Dog,Tell the March Hare

Jess made the point:

"If you're being held at gunpoint, is your brain going to help you threaten the offender?"

Which actually illustrates my argument nicely...

Already, it seems, the presence of a concealed weapon has caused you to assume that the best way out of a situation is to "threaten" the source of the danger.

With the greatest of respect, I submit that "threatening" a person who is "holding you at gunpoint" is absolutely the surest way of getting capped, real quick. As in dead.

All your other points are well taken and agreed. I have no interest in interfering with ones "right" to weapons, or the concept of appropriate force as a defence.

My point is merely that, in the vast majority of real-life scenarios, two guns are probably much more likely to result in the death of the innocent party, than one gun in the hands of an aggressor.

Davdoodles
XXX

Perhaps I mistated my point...I didn't mean, threaten as much as I meant survive. Solely using the thought process (which could be a bit unreliable in a situation of panic) would probably not be enough. I think that using a concealed weapon for the purpose of self defence would improve the safety of the public in general and decrease the the number of innocent deaths.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

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"I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood."
-Clarence Darrow