Gun Ownership and its Impact on Crime Rates

Some people think that states that allow citizens to carry guns only raises the crime rate in that state. Studies have actually shown that states that allow citizens to carry guns actually have a lower crime rate. States that allow citizens to carry guns have actually shown to lower murder rates from 5.6 killings per 100,000 people to 4.2.

Since 2007 the amount concealed gun permits have increased from 4.6 million to 12.8 million. Even last year the number of permits issued had increased by 1.7 million. As a result of more permits robbery, violent crimes, and murder rates have plummeted. The number is most likely to increase to since that gun permits are now not required to carry a gun in eight states. Citizens should be able to carry a

gun wherever they go because danger can happen anywhere whether it’s allowed to or not. For example, say a gas station that didn’t allow guns and the store is being robbed and there are people unnoticed in the back of the gas station. If the store would allow guns in the store the robbery could have been stopped if one of the citizens were armed. Another example is if someone were being mugged. An armed citizen could defend against the mugger and an unarmed citizen couldn’t. It’s simple, a citizen that is unarmed is also defenseless against a criminal that is armed, and a citizen that is armed can defend against a criminal and prevent being robbed or killed.
Although there are many pros to letting citizens carry guns wherever there are also many cons to this.

First off most citizens do not have any training on how to carry or shoot a gun. This can result in someone being hurt or killed on accident. Secondly a citizen carrying a gun could result in a murder of another citizen over an argument over something. For example in 2014 a retired police officer shot and killed another man over an argument text messaging in a movie theater. Thirdly this gives criminals access to carry a gun and commit a crime wherever they may go. Fourthly a citizen that can carry a gun wherever will also encourage a criminal to carry a gun to counteract the citizen who with the gun. The Inter –university Consortium for Political and Social Research did a survey and found that 75% of criminals carry a gun because they are afraid that the victim has a gun. Fifthly people who do not believe in carrying a gun will be most vulnerable. Say for example an unarmed citizen is in a bar full of other citizens that are armed. If an argument were to start between them and everyone pulled out their weapons on each other than the unarmed citizen would be most vulnerable. Lastly all citizens have different viewpoints on just about everything. With different viewpoints a citizen who is armed could try to us their gun to solve any problems that person may

see.
Some believe that people should be able to carry guns wherever they want and some believe citizens shouldn’t. Both have been studied and researched and have shown pros and cons of each choice that counteract each other in some way. No matter what there will be someone who uses this given option for crimes and make it even slimmer to allow people to carry guns wherever they want.