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Concealed Carry Pros And Cons

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The issue of concealed carry has led to arguments in recent years, with those opposed arguing that it is a danger to society, and those who support it saying it ofers protection from the dangers of society. The increased media coverage of shootings—the “media contagion” factor outlined by the American Psychological Association—has caused the awareness of firearm danger to rise (Media). Further, the gun culture of the United States has promoted the widespread use of firearms since revolutionary times, making guns prevalent in society (Kennett). These factors have grim results, making the United States the leader of developed countries in gun homicides — with almost five times more gun deaths than in any other developed country. These data found, …show more content…

This has caused proponents of gun control, such as David Cohens, Eugene Volokh, and David Williams — a Drexel University law professor, A UCLA law professor, and a professor at Indiana University and NYU, respectively — to discount the second amendment as outdated and archaic, primarily with the argument that the founding fathers could not have foreseen the effects of modern firearms (Williams)(Volokh). Cohens also calls into question other things that the constitution says to prove his point that it is not adequate, such as the 3/5th clause dealing with congressional representation regarding slavery (Cohens) . However, these arguments do not outline how to solve the problems at hand, and in Cohens’ argument the use of outside, irrelevant examples leads to confusion. In response to this argument, George Leef, the director of research at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, argued that “Even if they had known about machine guns, they would have written the amendment the same way, understanding that laws meant to prevent bad people from doing bad things won’t work” (Leef). His argument is based around the belief that repealing the second amendment would not be effective, and that there are many ideas in the ‘outdated’ constitution that still hold true. So in that sense, the constitution should be updated, but not …show more content…

The New York Times, using data from the Violence Policy Center found that from 2007-2015, there were 28 mass shootings attributed to concealed carry, in which 136 people were killed (a mass shooting for the purpose of the study was defined as 3 or more victims). A different New York Times report also found that 8,124 people were killed in the United States in 2014, about 27 a day. The report also found that in the same time frame there were at least 722 non-self defense deaths, which lessens the self defense reason for buying a gun. In these, 218 cases also ended with the gun owner committing suicide (Concealed). This calls into question the mental health of some concealed carry owners, and that there need to be stricter requirements for

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