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Counterpoint: Potential concealed carry law no ‘big deal’
By Teresa Dickert
Assistant Opinion Editor
The person you have such strong feelings against on Carroll’s campus might have a gun in their trousers. So what? Really, what is the big deal?
It is not as if “just anyone” will be carrying a gun legally. Not every “nutso” who is impatient in traffic will be legally whipping out their gun and shooting at you. Just because one can carry legally does not mean the law regarding use of the weapon has changed, nor have users gotten any less careful about the use of their weapons.
The concealed carry bill provides safeguards through a long list of stipulations, which go beyond just the basic “need for a safety class.” To obtain a concealed carry permit one must be at least 21 years of age, not be prohibited from possessing a firearm due to a felony conviction, not have been subject to a finding of incompetence (found not guilty of a crime by reason of mental disease or mental defect, or involuntarily committed for treatment of mental illness during the preceding five years), among other requirements. In other words, permits only go to those of sound mind and who have been judged via a background check on a variety of factors to be capable of safely handling a concealed weapon, and who are willing to foot the $75 fee for the permit.
Even after one obtains a permit for concealed carry, it does not allow one to carry his or her weapon in a variety of restricted locations including a police station, a sheriff’s office, a state patrol station, a prison, a jail, a tavern (in most cases), a school administration building, an airport, or any place in which the carrying of a weapon is prohibited by federal law. This means legal permit-holding, concealed weapon-carrying people will not even become a potential threat in those locations.
It should also be noted that the concealed carry bill refers to weapons besides the hotly contested firearm. The bill also defines a concealed weapon to be a handgun, a stun gun, a tear gas gun, a knife other than a switchblade, or a billy club. A gun has a bad name in the U.S. due to accidental gun deaths and such, so any bill regarding the carry of such a weapon is immediately under extreme scrutiny.
Instead of immediately thinking of how deadly a gun can be and immediately dismissing anything that has to do with them, read up on the bill and make a conscious decision. Wisconsin is not the only state to reconsider their stance on the subject in recent months. According to the Wisconsin Concealed Carry Association, Wisconsin is one of only five states prohibiting anyone other than police officers from carrying concealed weapons.
On September 11th of this year, Missouri became the 36 state to have a shall-issue law regarding concealed carry. Obviously people are doing more thinking and researching and deciding concealed carry is a good thing. I do not believe there are people in the House and Senate randomly changing their minds and saying, “Oh, I guess that more gun-toting Americans is a grand plan.” Besides, the concealed carry bill does not automatically mean more gun-carriers, just more legal places for the gun to be carried. People want to defend themselves against people who do not care what the law is -- criminals. Let those people carry, let those people protect themselves from harm, and let those people be on the same level as the criminals.
