Why Concealed Carry Is Relevant
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Why Concealed Carry Matters
Why does concealed carry matter? After all, some might opine, you don't need to go around armed all the time. For most people, the risk that they'll be involved in an armed robbery or car jacking or mass shooting or something is so low, that there's practically no point. Why should it matter if a person is legally allowed to conceal and carry a firearm?
For a number of reasons. Concealed carry is a fundamental right when it comes to firearms, nearly as important as mere ownership alone. Some might argue more so.
A Concealed Handgun Gives One Agency Over Their Own Life
Not everyone wants to necessarily rely on other people for everything, including the means to keep themselves from harm at the hands of criminals and maniacs - and only a concealed handgun in a is going to accomplish this for most people.
By taking the means to defend one's self into one's own hands, a person is able to more fully exercise agency over their own life.
A person who is not armed is playing the odds. Granted, the odds may be in your favor; the truth is that a significant portion of the population lives far from the most violent areas, which are generally the inner cities. If you don't live in or close to such an area, the odds that you'll ever witness or be involved in an armed robbery, mugging, car jacking or other violent encounter are fairly low.
An unarmed person, however, also puts their lives in other's people's hands. First and foremost is the police. While police are our protectors, the fact is that they won't always be there or won't be there in time to do anything about someone who poses you a threat. By not being armed, whilst in the home or outside of it, you are also depending on the forbearance of everyone else...and that is something you cannot always count on.
After all, your fellow citizens may not necessarily as law-abiding as you.
Police Are Minutes Away - A CCW Is Always With You
Police can be minutes away, whereas a is available within seconds. One second or less, if you're quick enough with practice or with your home firearm storage setup.
A life-threatening situation can emerge and conclude in a matter of minutes. An armed robbery only takes a minute or two, same with a car jacking. A person trying to get into your house and rob you blind or harm you may not be slowed down for long by a locked door or window.
Police response times vary by area, but the national average response time, according to various estimates, is about 11 minutes. If confronted by a serious threat, that may be too long to wait. The National Sheriff's Association admonishes that the average school shooting lasts 12.5 minutes, but the average response time across their member organizations is 18 minutes.
Granted, average response times involve an economy of scale; some areas have very long response times for emergency services such as rural areas. Other areas have blazingly fast response times.
However, you have no guarantee that police will arrive in a timely-enough fashion to save your life. Police departments across the country have even said as much. That's where a CCW comes into play. If confronted with a lethal threat, a firearm gives you the means to deal with the threat now.
A Population That Cannot Carry Concealed Is Rendered Dependent
Legally being able to carry concealed is a mark of a population that has not been compelled to be dependent by their government. Being denied the legal pathway to carrying concealed means that a people have been compelled to be dependent on others. They must, by definition, depend entirely upon law enforcement for protection. They must, by definition, depend on their fellow man to never intend them harm.
In a perfect world, that would be enough.
However, we do not live in a perfect world. The fact is that we cannot always rely on police to be there when we need them. We cannot rely upon all of our fellow citizens to not be malevolent. If people could be relied upon to live lawfully, or more to the point live peacefully, there would be no such thing as violent crime. But since how we live is so far removed from how we ought, people must be able to carry in order to guard themselves from those who would do others harm.
Unfortunately, the relentless march of time has not curbed neither man's darker impulses nor the inability for law enforcement to be everywhere at once. Technological innovations may bring efficiency and smarter enforcement, but this only goes so far. Human nature, unfortunately, has not changed for the better.
Because neither of these factors are likely to drastically change for the better, concealed carry will remain relevant for as long as there is human civilization.