This year alone, two states adopted constitutional carry laws. Beginning January 2023, Alabama will become the 25th state to permit concealed weapons without a permit. The Yellowhammer State followed the footsteps of Indiana, which passed a similar law in March 2022.
In 2021, at least six states – Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, Tennessee, Texas and Utah – passed their own laws that made permit-less concealed carry legal.
Two decades prior, only the state of Vermont allowed constitutional carry. More than twenty states then followed suit by approving new statutes that decriminalized carrying firearms without permits beginning a decade ago.
Constitutional carry is defined as the legal right to carry a firearm without a permit or license. Any law-abiding American citizen above a certain age, usually 18 or 21 years old, can now carry a concealed firearm in states with constitutional carry laws. Given the enduring debate on the issue, enforcement of constitutional carry happens at the state level instead of the federal level.
Increasing sentiment among the general public for the need to arm themselves in self-defense justifies expanded access to concealed carry.
State, local authorities toothless against violent crimes
The growth of constitutional carry in half of America's 50 states points to an increasing belief that state and local authorities do not do enough to ensure that people are safe from violent crimes. Given this, self-defense has become more essential now than before.
Police departments themselves were de-fanged by local governments that capitulated to the demands of Black Lives Matter protesters. Furthermore, soft-on-crime district attorneys who refuse to prosecute violent criminals and even return them to the streets exacerbated the public safety problem.
Thus, the passage of constitutional carry laws hints at a growing lack of faith toward law enforcement, the legal system and public institutions at large – as evidenced by survey data.
Subsequently, the recognized need for self-defense and the exercise of Second Amendment rights naturally increases as faith in these institutions dwindles. One sociologist wrote that "legal cynicism" spurs "protective gun ownership," and that "lower levels of police legitimacy are significantly related to a higher probability of acquiring a firearm for protection." (Related: USA Today sums up the anti-gun lunacy of the Left: It's "terrifying" that Americans can protect themselves with concealed carry firearms.)
In extreme cases, this can even lead to illegal "self-help" with a firearm – where people become judge, jury and executioner at the same time.
According to historian Randolph Roth, the decreasing perception of state legality can lead to high rates of violent crime. When the general public thinks that official pressure will be inadequate to control crime, some private citizens may feel the demand to take matters into their own hands.
While those living in high-crime areas may need personal protection more urgently, they are not alone when it comes on the issue of self-defense. Supporters for concealed carry laws in both suburban and rural areas repeatedly call upon the need for personal protection from violent crime to justify expanding laws that permit carrying a firearm everywhere.
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Supreme Court strengthens Second Amendment by striking down restrictive NY "concealed carry" law.
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