Carrying a Concealed Weapon Statistics/Info

[dachness]

I am a student at the University of Hawaii and will be writting a english research paper on why carrying a concealed weapon in Hawaii should be allowed. I personally have a 10/22 and go to the range all the time. If I remember correctly states that implemented carrying concealed weapons had a decrease in crime rates as a result.

I am looking for info about states where carrying a concealed weapon is allowed and how the crime rates were affected when the law was created. I am also looking for the benefits and detriments of carrying concealed weaopons. I want to beable to adress the negative effects in my paper, so I improve on my persuasiveness.

I would greatly appreciate any info or links that can be shared to aid in writing my research paper.

Overal my paper needs to be 5-6 pages double spaced and I need to adress both perspectives.

Thank You Very Much,
Daniel Lee

 

[Monkeyleg]

Daniel, I would caution against using too many statistics. Some states have experienced significant reductions in crime (Florida, for example), while others have shown little or no change. Florida benefitted the most because, in 1986, crime was raging in that state.

Also, it's easy for someone to dispute statistics.

You might do better to focus on some of the following points:

1. Find out how many violent crimes were committed in Hawaii last year, and then question how many of those victims would have been able to fend off their attackers.

2. A person's life is his most valuable possession, and the right to defend that life is a God-given right. If any rational person accepts that premise, then it follows that a person should have the means with which to defend his/her life.

3. Point out the history of gun control in general, and laws against concealed weapons in particular. Laws against concealed weapons began in the South following the Civil War in order to keep freed blacks from carrying weapons. The Ku Klux Klan lobbied as far north as Indiana for laws restricting the carrying of concealed weapons.

4. If you must mention numbers, you might mention that concealed weapons permit holders commit a much smaller percentage of crimes than the average citizen. FBI data shows that 5% of the population commits crimes more serious than a traffic ticket, whereas in every shall-issue CCW state, less than .5% of permit holders are arrested for those same types of crimes.

 

[AJ Dual]

Another good example, the Sullivan Law in New York City. It was written to keep the influx of Late-1800, early 1900's European immagrants, mainly Irish and unarmed.

Monkeyleg's advice to minimize statistics is a good one. What the CCW movment now needs to do is decouple CCW from the notion that it's worthwhile because it's a "crime fighting" measure, and instead hammer home that it's an individual rights issue.

People deserve the right to self defense? Yes/No...

 

[Hkmp5sd]

Check out John Lott's books More Guns, Less Crime and The Bias Against Guns.

 

[dachness]

Thanks guys for the info. I will try to stay away from alot of statistics and go more towards the personal right to defend youself. I will also go back to the history of where CCW and how the reasons people were not allowed to carry. This should be a good point considering I can rais the question of whether those same needs exist today and if they do not, why do we not allow CCW.

Thanks for all the info and if you have any more ideas or sites I could use keep me updated. My 1 page proposal is due tomorrow however my final research paper isn't due until the begining of November. So I have quite a bit of time to research and decide how I want to go about things.

Thanks,
Daniel

 

[ceetee]

That's all good advice. One of the problems in citing statistics on crime is that there are many other social and economic factors that influence crime... Here in Florida, when our CCW law was passed, we were trying to recover from one of the largest forced illegal immigration problems ever (the Mariel boatlift, where Castro basically emptied Cuba's prisons, and freed serious felons, with the proviso that they go to the US and never return.) There's no question that once the many Marielitos that committed crimes were locked up, there were less criminals on the streets, so crime rates went down.

The nation as a whole has seen many new "get tough on crime" bills passed, keeping criminals in prison longer. It's even been said that since there was a measurable drop in crome exactly 18 years after the Roe v. Wade decision, the availability of legalk abortions play an important role in lowering crime rates.

I'd suggest asking here: Combat Carry dot com. It's a forum dedicated entirely to the carrying of weapons for self-defense. There's one forum there that's entirely for stories of citizens defending themselves legally. Lots of good folks there, too.

 

[Malum Prohibitum]

http://www.guncite.com/ is a good place to start.

 

[Sheldon J]

a few more

http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?ID=18 or http://www.2asisters.net/ try http://www.guncite.com/journals/index.html there is also http://www.thegunzone.com/rkba/rkbadex.html just one more http://www.saf.org/ these are just a fiew for an start.