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He goes on to note "opponents of right-to-carry laws volubly have contended that if significant numbers of individuals legally can carry weapons there would be a high body count as a result of poor judgment or accident. That does not seem to have been the case in the two states which have had such laws the longest, Florida and Texas. Meanwhile, proponents contend incidents in which crimes are prevented by armed citizens are underreported indeed, ignored by the media."

The most vociferous complaint about CCW lodged by gun controllers is that such laws will inevitably lead to "wild west-type shoot-outs" in the streets of America's cities. It is also the most inaccurate of the anti-gunner's predictions. Indeed, when there has been blood spilled, increasingly it is the blood of the bad guys falling victim to their own predatory nature.

John R. Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime, and who has been pilloried by the anti-gun coalition, notes accurately that no state which as passed a CCW law has repealed it. In fact, a number of those states have actually expanded (as in, liberalized) their CCW laws, in order to enhance what lawmakers also must perceive as the crime reduction factor of said laws.

Though the government may be loathe to admit it, there is a common-sense quality to the passage of CCW laws, insofar as their effect on violent crime. As the saying goes, "an armed society is a polite society." Criminals like to operate unencumbered by such threat factors as falling prey to a gun-wielding victim, so it only stands to reason the more armed the citizenry the better-protected it will be against crime.

Allowing law-abiding citizens full advantage of their Second Amendment guarantee is not just the proper constitutional thing to do. It is exactly the right thing to do if enhancing public safety and security is your goal, especially in a time of terrorism.

The CDC, in its analysis, also faulted some studies of the effectiveness of CCW laws, to be fair. And there is credibility in better and more effective policing and law enforcement.

But these methods have been tried in past high-crime eras, to questionable substantive effect. The difference in this past decade, however, has been the widespread passage of CCW laws. Discounting this phenomenon or ignoring it altogether is not just a disservice to civil society, it is an injustice to the victims of crime who are, in still too many places today, denied their right to self-defense.

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Jon E. Dougherty is author of Illegals: The Imminent Threat Posed by our Unsecured U.S.-Mexico Border, and founder/editor-in-chief of the Web site Voices Magazine.

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.

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