Monday, November 10, 2008

Should Illinois residents carry a concealed weapon?







Should Illinois residents be able to carry a concealed weapon? How many lives could be saved or lost with this right? Would people abuse the privilege? Would citizens do good or bad deeds with this right? How would this affect the crime rate? How would gun sales be affected by the right to carry a concealed weapon? Would you stop a crime if you had a weapon? Would you feel safer carrying a weapon?
Thanks for your thoughts--

Jesse Kaufmann @ 4:30

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now this is a touchy question because there are many pros, and many cons, however, I would say it should not be legalized. One very big pro would be the fact that the crime prevention rate would drop substantially. People who choose to take of advantage of this legalization will be able to better protect themselves from dangerous situations such as: Mugging, rape, physical abuse, and liable self-defense. However, the legalization of concealed carry may increase the crime rate in certain areas. This would only tend to counteract with the people who are protecting themselves and create a society where people are just shooting eachother all of the time.

English student said...

In this world today I think that legalizing concealed weapons would be a very bad thing. Statistics show that there are more poeple that get injured or killed by their own weapons than saved. I believe that crime rates would go up as well as well as deaths. I know that I would NOT feel safer w/ a gun in my home. I'd much rather have my big kitchen knife or a metal bat. I really don't care about the store sales on guns, I low bows a lot better.

Anonymous said...

I dont believe anyone should be able to carry a consealed weapon unless your job gives you that right, so basically police should be the only ones. I feel more lives will be lost than saved, a gun will just escalate a situation and someone getting hurt will be the most common outcome. However, if people were aloud to carry guns the crime rate will drop dramically, who would rob someone that more than likely have a gun?

English student said...

I dont think Illinois residents should carry a concealed weapon. Many more lives would be lost if this right was given. People would abuse this right. I would not feel safe carrying a weapon because most likely I wouldnt know how to use it.
-LaTia Alexander

Anonymous said...

No, Illinois residents should not have the right to carry concealed weapons. There is already enough road rage going on, can you imagine what would happen if they had guns in their car to boot. Not a pretty picture.

No matter what our society does if a criminal wants a weapon he/she is going to get it. But if the honest everyday person carries one and gets frightened over something that happens and pulls out his gun, we have then created another criminal by saying it is okay to carry guns.

Anonymous said...

While I do not believe in weapons of any kind, I believe it is the right of every human being to feel like they are protected and secure. I don't believe it should be outlawed, because American history has shown us that outlawing things only makes the problem worse. I think that if a person wants to carry a concealed weapon, they should have to pass a test and get a permit for the weapon. All of my friends carry knives either on their person or in their vehicle, because that is how we were brought up. I don't agree with it, but it's their right as a human. Carrying a concealed weapon is one of those things that you have to earn the right to do.

(4:30)

English student said...

No I don't think that Illinois residents should be able to conceal a weapon. I believe that the crime rate would go up because people will abuse their privileges. I think their will be a lot more unnecessary shooting and killing. Yes, me being a woman I would feel safer if I had a weapon to protect me and my children, but I know their would be a lot of other people with one also.

Mykeshia Lipscomb-(4:30)

English student said...

I honestly think that if you have no record and are properly trained I don’t see why you couldn’t have a concealed weapon. Not just guns mind you; I know I would have liked to have a can of mace when I was being followed around one night by some guy. Lucky for me I had a phone and the police was there instantly to take me home, but my thoughts are more on what if I didn’t. There are so many people that are raped, robbed, and killed out of nowhere; I think that if they had proper training and a weapon of some sort that it might have been prevented. Now by saying this means there would be greater chances of illegal actions, and I suggest stronger laws and punishments to deter them.My biggest reason is I should not have to compromise myself or anything I do in life because some criminal.

Shayna Garrelts (4:30)

English student said...

I do not believe that Illinois residents should have the right to carry a concealed weapon. First there are many other ways for a person to protect themself in case the worst happens. Carry some pepper spray on you and don't walk around in the middle of the night by yourself. Also if everyone was allowed the right to carry a concealed weapon it would make armed robbery to hard to prevent. When criminals are allowed the right to carry a weapon it sets off a wave of potential crimes. Not to mention any renegade residents that may feel the need to stop a crime since they have a gun on them anyway. Gun sales i believe would remain the same though, the foid card and everything. You don't want known criminals to get their hands on a gun. Overall I think by making concealed weapons legal it would bring both crime and deaths up. You don't need a gun on you at all times for protection. All you need is to make a few smart decisions and not be a complete idiot.

John Hoeh

English student said...

More guns more death. People already are abusing the right to bare arms. People with license get guns for their friends with no license.Guns have been around for years and years.. I feel you have the right to protect yorself,but do you need to shot somebody? I guess it depends with your situation, but you shot something i love, I'm shot shot you back.People are to stressed for it to be lagal, death rates would ski rocket.

Anonymous said...

i do think that illinois should be able to carry a concealed weapon. As long as you pass the test and all the background checks to be able to purchase the weapons you should be allow.

Anonymous said...

If you were able to carry a concealed weapon, naturally the crime rate will go up. Some can see it as self-defense but in the end someone could still possibly die. Of course the gun industry would rise because the demand would be alot higher and they wouldn't have a problem. People would abuse the privelege simply with a gun they feel power, and they take it too far. The only way to stop a crime with a weapon is to use yours, and in the end a kill is a kill.

English student said...

I own a couple of guns myself but I see no reason to why anyone would actually need to carry a gun on with them. People would abuse it by using the gun in an unsafe manner and it could accidently fire due tounsafe handling. People should leave the cime fighting to the cops who have been trained in fire arm usage. The crime rate would go up because of more gangs carrying weapons with no fear of pulling it out on a pedestrian.

Ben Legner (1:00)

English student said...

honestly this is a loose, loose situation for me because on hand the guns should be eligal but then on the other hand u have to also think that even thoe they would be eligal so many criminals may have them eligally so there might be eeven more murders because how would the inocent people defend them selfs...*Maria Johnson

Anonymous said...

I'm kind of torn on how to answer this question. There are always those who will abuse the right, so what do you do with those people, and how do you identify them? Yeah, there is crime rate, and it may help protect people, but then you will have those with "shoot em up" mentalities that are legally able to walk around with a gun.

English student said...

This to me is a very hard question. People should have the right to carry a concealed weapon but at the same time people would also abuse this. There would probably be a drop in some types of crimes but probably a rise in other. I don't know if i would stop a crime if i had a concealed weapon or not. I guess it depends on the situation. I wouldn't know until i was put in it. I would definetly in some parts of neighborhoods feel safer it i had a weapon. I believe that some people would definely abuse this privilege

(Brandon Daniels 4:30)

English student said...

I believe that with a permit, illinois residents should be able to carry a concealed weapon. There are guns on the streets now in Illinois, but who has them? Not law abiding citizens, becuase it is illegal, but that means by default only those who are breaking the laws have concealed weapons. If you give weapons to the people it will lower the crime rates.
If a robber on the street sees and old lady walking and knows it is illegal to have a gun there is a very low possibilty that she has a gun which means she is an easy target. If there are laws allowing law abiding citizens to carry guns then that same robber doesn't know if that old lady has a gun in her purse or not. Meaning that Robbers will think twice before snatching a womans purse.
The guns being used to murder people and being used to rob banks or gas stations are usually illegally obtained any way. meaning that regardless of wether or not guns are legal, they will still be on the street commiting crimes. So i do believe that allowing illinois residents to carry a concealed weapon will lower crime rates and over all be very beneficial to Illinois.

Ashley Gentner (4:30)

Anonymous said...

No, I don't think that residents should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon; I just think that it's too dangerous. I think that there are too many people who would abuse this right if it was given to us.I think that there would be more lives lost rather than saved and the crime rate would most likely increase. I'm not sure if I would stop a crime if I had a weapon, unless it involved my family. I don't think I would feel safer carrying a weapon, I just would know that I had access to it if I need it.Gun sales would increase and I think that there would be more bad deeds done if some citizens had this chance.

English student said...

No way!!! I think anyone should carry weapons because I know that some people are just to imature and are not going to use it correctly. Besides, what if the owner of the weapon gets into somebody else's hands? Who would be responsible?
I wouldn'n know how many lives could be saved by carrying a gun because no one knows the future but at least we all know that by having easy access to these, anyone could get hurt. Also, if it's legal to carry one then it would make it easy for criminals and there would be more crimes, because everyone wants to shoot who ever they don't like, but they don't realize that in this world there are always going to be people that you don't like. And that's something you have to live with.
The gun sales would be "affected" for good because then everyone will buy one, oviously. And sooner the gun constibuters would be spending tons of money to make these weapons.
All I'm saying that this isn't a necessity for anyone, if I had a weapon with me, of coarse I will try to shoot at the criminal, but just think of this; if everyone has a gun at time, everyone will try to get their guns out. Which would cause a real problem, specially if there are kids around. And the way I feel is that when ever is my time to go/dye even if I have all the weapons to protect myself with then they will kill me, so I don't feel protected or safer by having a gun.

~Marisol Oliva

English student said...

I don't think it would be a great idea to legalize carry and conceal to Illinois residents. If this is legalized, then the crime rate will definitely go up in large numbers because in this world we live in we have way too many crazy people and it creates problems for law inforcers to protect citizens. And if you're worried about being mugged or raped, then just go to your local stores that sell pepper spray or order a taser.

Chris Waters

Anonymous said...

I think that there would be a lot more pros than cons to this argument. The one thing I wouldn’t want to see is a big wave of gun purchases that result in more stolen guns on the street. I believe that criminals would think twice before they robbed an old lady if they thought she might be packing.

Anonymous said...

this is a very difficult question. i would love to say that we would only use them in defense but i think that some would take advantage of this privilege. it's sad, but I'm afraid it's the truth. i definitely think that you should need a license and you should need to pass a background check to own a concealed weapon.

if i had a weapon, i think i would stop a crime, but only if it directly involved me. and i think i would definitely feel safer carrying a gun. i think many Americans would sleep better knowing they are protected.

English student said...

I think that if you have no record of being a criminal then you should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon. I think the crime rate would go down because people would be afraid of having someone turning th tables on them. Any criminal would be willing to attack someone if they new that they werent going to fight back. If everyone had a concealed weapon then the criminal would have second thoughts about committing a crime on someone.

Steve Roberts

English student said...

there are always certain people who should not be able to carry a weapon but if they want to there going to. so why not make it legal? i dont know if it would be a bad or good thing. the only way to find out is try it.
colin h.