But, in my view, it creates a “potential minefield” where tragic gun scenarios are just waiting to happen....It is beyond belief (and logic) that increasing the number of hand guns in our midst makes us safer ... Not to mention, the potential carnage that will ensue as a result of individuals carrying handguns without any formal training.It's fair enough to make an argument like this. Whether liberal concealed carry laws correlate with more or less crime is an empirical matter (one that time-series econometrics shows is settled, in my view).
But if Young fails to acknowledge that 48 other states have removed prohibitions on concealed carry in the past 25 years, during which violent crime has trended downwards, and that no state has reverted back to prohibition, he is omitting a pretty important part of the story.
Lawful concealed carry isn't a scary hypothetical experiment, it's the norm in most of the country, even - gasp - in my home town of Boston. And it hasn't made any place a "battlefield" that wasn't already.
I challenge Leon D. Young to give an example where concealed carry has caused a place to be a battlefield. Though I think that if he coulda, he woulda.
I agree completely with the points you made. I think the fact that no state has reverted back to a ban on concealed carry is proof enough that civilian concealed carry does not create more violent crime.
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