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Alhambra PRESS
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VOL. 7, , NO. 33
31 STATES DO NOT REQUIRE A LICENSE OR EVEN A PERMIT TO CARRY A GUN Terry MILLER tmiller@beaconmedianews.com
I
n recent weeks, and the wake of more senseless and horrific mass shootings, the national debate has once again turned to gun control, ease of purchase along with a myriad of unanswerable questions. How can this continue to happen in the United States? Of course, there is no easy answer for such a multifaceted impasse. However, as we recently learned in doing some research for this article, carrying openly visible guns in public is extremely common in more than half of the United States. Naturally, this can quickly turn disagreements fatal, be used to threaten and suppress the First Amendment rights of others, and create severe uncertainty for law enforcement responding to shootings. Despite the evidence that openly carrying firearms endangers public safety, many states lack laws to limit open carry—and some have even taken steps to diminish the regulation(s) of visible guns in public. Historically, most states either prohibited or strongly regulated the carrying of firearms in public. Over the past three decades, however, state laws have changed dramatically. In that time, many states have significantly weakened their laws, which resulted in permitting more people to carry guns in public places and to reduce or eliminate local law enforce-
Open carry laws have become less prohibitive despite the seemingly never ending mass shootings that have become all too frequent and increasingly deadly. – File Photo by Terry Miller/ Beacon Media News
ment’s ability to keep potentially dangerous people from carrying guns in public. Open carry refers to the practice of carrying openly visible firearms in public. Though most states continue to require a permit in order to carry a concealed weapon, many states now place few or no restrictions on open carry. In fact, some states have imposed draconian require-
ments on private businesses that wish to keep deadly weapons off their property. We were stunned to find 30 states have little or no laws against carrying a weapon. By promoting gun carrying in public places, often with few restrictions, open carry can increase the likelihood of conflict, severely endangering public safety.
Researchers have suggested that the presence of visible firearms may alter behavior and increase aggressive and violent behaviors. Multiple studies show that restrictions on carrying concealed weapons can increase public safety. For example, recent analyses have shown that states with weak standards for concealed carry have higher rates of
violent crime and gun homicides than would be expected if the states had stricter standards for publically carrying weapons. White Supremacists have long used firearms—and permissive open carry laws— to threaten and intimidate others, with examples of such violence going back to the Reconstruction Era. In 2017, a group of white
supremacists protesting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee marched through Charlottesville, Virginia, openly carrying military-style rifles as a means to intimidate and suppress the Constitutional rights of others. Read More on our website