Defense of Self

Since yesterday’s article focused on the right to keep and bear arms, I am going to go one step farther and focus on the right to carry a concealed weapon. Currently, 48 of our 50 states allow some form of concealed carry for personal protection (Illinois and Wisconsin are the remaining two along with the District of Columbia). Years ago, what started as just a few states passing laws that supported the individual’s right to carry a concealed weapon has turned into a national belief. No longer is it the “crazy gun wielding loony cowboys” who support this right. The average citizen adequately informed of the gun laws, restrictions, and understands the concealed weapons laws support passing them in their states. Read that statement again, “adequately informed of the guns laws, restrictions and, understanding of the concealed weapons laws.”

For those who don’t know, I live in the state of Missouri. A few years ago, our efforts supporting a concealed weapon law finally came to a conclusion. Our state’s governing body passed and our governor signed into law our state concealed weapon law. It was a very long and hard fought battle but it wasn’t over even on that day. Appeals and quite a few lawyer and judge meetings later, the final law was stamped with complete approval. During the times leading up to and after the signing of the law, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (a notorious liberalistic newspaper) printed articles ranging from we are now “entering the wild, wild west” to “the streets are going to turn red with blood.” Article after article supporting fear appeared. No longer were we going to live in a society of civilized people. We were going to live in the days of Wild Bill and Wyatt Earp. We were told to expect innocent citizens being shot indiscriminately because of heated arguments, road rage incidents ending in shootings, or your average gunfight at the OK Corral because the Hatfields and McCoys were now “armed to the teeth.”

What this “newspaper” did not do was to actually read or understand our laws currently in effect or the newly signed concealed carry law. There were articles talking about how we were going to see bombs readily being brought into public arenas, grenades being carried into school, and crazy people carrying sawed off shotguns under their cloaks. Needless to say, every single statement they made was uninformed and a simple case of writing from fear. Our national, state, and local guns and weapon laws prohibit and invoke penalties to make sure that things of the above nature “should” not happen. I say “should” because, if you read yesterday’s article, you will always have bad people that laws do not affect. Our concealed carry law is very strict in what is allowed and if they had read it, their article would not have made it past the first draft because it was simply not true.

After a few years of our carry law in this state and many years of carry laws across our nation, do you see rivers of blood flowing down your street because of concealed weapons? Of course you do not. The crime you do see is the same crime that you saw before the law (well, let me restate that, crime is LOWER after concealed weapon laws are passed). No longer are the citizens an easy target for the preying criminal. The generic criminal must now pass through a barrier before succeeding in his criminal action. He must determine if potentially getting shot and having his life end is worth his venture. Without the self defense our concealed carry laws offer, we are at the mercy of the average criminal and police protection is our only recourse. Personally, I want the ability to defend myself without having to wait for the police to show up.

Enough of that, let’s focus on where we are going in the future. Since we passed the laws to support the right to concealed carry, they can also be revoked. We must still focus on keeping our rights and not get complacent and allow all the hard work to unwind. What is the current political climate? The media cannot get enough of our country’s new impending savior, Barack Obama. Everywhere you turn, more Obama. Now, I’m not going to turn this into a Presidential politics article and I have resigned myself to the fact that Obama will in fact be our next President, but I am going to show you how he “supports” our gun laws and right to concealed carry. If you know anything about what’s going on in politics, you know Obama is of course a senator from Illinois. Wait, weren’t they one of the states that don’t support the right to concealed carry? Yes, you would be right. That in itself isn’t a major issue, he is just a senator from that state and he’s only been in office for roughly 10 years.

Wait, he’s only been in a political office for 10 years and he’s going to be our next President? More than likely so, but that isn’t the point. The point is he does have a track record concerning guns. Let’s look at a few. Once again, let me remind you, these points are not dredged up from his distant past and his views have changed, these are recent and valid. I’m just going to quote a few here:

“I am not in favor of concealed weapons,” Obama said. “I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations.”

On the 2nd Amendment: “But just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can’t constrain the exercise of that right…”

Question: 35. Do you support state legislation to:  a. ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns? Obama answers:  Yes.

Q: When you were in the state senate, you talked about licensing and registering gun owners. Would you do that as president?  A: I don’t think that we can get that done.

Obama supports banning the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons.

Obama voted NO on prohibiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers.

As you can clearly see, he is not a gun supporter by any means. The future of our gun laws are going to be at stake during his Presidency. You may say he’s only one person, he can’t undo all that has been accomplished over the last 20 years in support of our 2^nd amendment. Yes, that is true, but however, both the House and the Senate are under Democratic control and with the current political climate of “hate the Republicans,” he will have the power to do whatever is opposite just because it’s not what the Republicans would do.

So, we must go forward but we must not allow our current rights to be removed by the impending government. Make sure that you vote and support those who support your rights. Follow the news and look for the winds of change. Exercise your rights or they will be taken from you! Our rights are not given to use by the government but are to be protected by it. Remember that.

Citation: http://www.ontheissues.org/

Citation: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/