Ringo
A WATCHMAN
The statistics that show crime, particularly confrontational crime goes down when "shall issue" carry is instituted and continues to go down as more people carry concealed. The two books by John Lott go into it in quite a bit of detail with the most comprehensive study ever done on gun control laws and crime.
I understand the "shall issue" carry and crime goes down thing, "goes down" however is a very minor statistic in the overall scheme of things. Phoenix for instance is OC & CC, but has an extremely high rate of crime regardless. If the majority of citizens were to arm themselves and let it be known, crime would go down, but that will never happen. When only 1, maybe 2 % of the citizens CC, and 99 9/10 of crime is unaffected because of those 98% who don't, crime doesn't go down. A mugging, rape, etc., being thwarted by a citizen with a CCW is almost unheard of, let alone home invasion where the majority of people don't have guns even in their homes. I agree that if more citizens would arm themselves there would be less crime, but until the statistics show that the majority of citizens are armed that won't happen per the statistics. The BG's know the statistics, and the odds of a person being armed, and the odds are in their favor. Everyone is not protected or safer just because "shall issue" is legal or instituted, only the CCW holder, carrying concealed, is safer. Not safe, just safer. With OC the odds change 99 % in favor of everyone being safe or safer. IMO.
