Concealed Handgun Law

[zeke1312]

We continue to debate and some state senator has advanced a bill here in NE to allow carrying concealed weapons. A couple of questions come to mind. Is strapping a handgun in an exposed holster to your waist considered concealed? What experiences has your state, if it allows concealed handguns, have had positive or negative? I understand 38 states allow concealed weapons. Also I saw one study done in Texas, who enacted a Right To Carry (RTC) law found that a male citizen of Texas who did not have a RTC permit was 7x more likely to commit a crime as one who had a permit.

I would like to hear comments regarding this issue. I want to be more informed when discussing the subject with folks here that panic "the sky is falling" and do not want those "nasty guns to be carryed by a bunch of people that will kill others".

Thank you!

P.S. I believe those who pass the appropriate training and screening should be allowed to carry and that means every citizen, not just law, etc., people.

[Revolvr]

Couple of general comments and some links to useful resources.

I think there are 35 "shall-issue" states.

In general, concealed means concealed, and one could get in trouble if exposed.

In general national violent crime rates have been going down since about 1994. The anti-CCW people always said carrying weapons would turn our grocery stores into war zones. Obviously never happened. Crime from permit holders is almost non-existent.

In my state, Arizona, violent crime rates peaked around 1994 when the shall-issue CCW laws were enacted. Violent crime has been trending down ever since. Some other non-violent crimes however have not really declined - like car theft.

Good resources are:
http://www.packing.org/
State-by-state CCW laws. Not much on crime stats though.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/welcome.html
If you want to do your own research on crime statistics, go here. The Bureau of Justice Statistics. You can download spreadsheets by state or for the whole country.

http://www.rkba.org/ccw/shall-issue.html
Good article on analysis of statistics.

-- Dan

[Herb]

Only one reason I love living here, and yes I have a CCW permit.
It's approved! It's online! There are some handgun experience requirements and each student/applicant *MUST* meet at least *ONE* of them in order to request a waiver of the otherwise required in-person handgun safety handling instruction. If you are looking for a very convenient way to get the class that you must have in order to apply for the outstanding Utah CCW permit, and you do not have a local instructor in your area, visit our website via the link above on this page or call 1-800-535-6813 for more information. The Utah CCW permit is valid in up to 28 states when carried by a non-resident of Utah with a few states (i.e. Arizona) not allowing their own residents to carry in their home state using ONLY an out of state permit. If you already have one or more CCW permits, consider adding the Utah CCW permit to increase your state coverage area. If you happen to be a resident of Utah, you will get a total of 31 states with this permit. For value comparison purposes, the Utah CCW permit costs only $59 for first five (5) years then it renews by mail for only $10 for each subsequent five-year period. (Taken from Packing.org)

An article that I found to be enlightening, the Anti's don't want you to see this..
http://www.aphf.org/surveyresults.pdf (NOTE PDF)

[zeke1312]

Thanks for the feedback! I checked the web sites and found lots of good "ammo".

[SteveM]

Some Texas stats:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/adminis.../convrates.htm

[Dwight Gruber]

Zeke,

Two websites you should know about:

http://www.packing.org/

http://www.tsra.com/LottPage.htm

--Dwight