A Simple Defense of Constitutional Carry
It’s shockingly simple why this websites supports permitless carry
If you own a motor vehicle in the United States, you are able to drive that motor vehicle on your private property without any state sanction or permits. If you want to take that vehicle off of your private property and onto public roads, where other citizens are also driving, that’s when you must acquire a license, insurance, registration, etc. This was the logic around permits for concealed carry: you can own guns for hunting, range use, and home defense, but if you want to take that firearm into public you must get a state-issued permit.
At least, that’s what the logic used to be. Driving is a privilege, but the 2nd Amendment is a Natural Right.
With Nebraska and Florida enacting Constitutional Carry legislation in 2023, 26 of the 50 states (now technically the majority) allow citizens to carry a concealed firearm without any permit required from the state. Why?
These states have looked at the laws in place around restricting concealed carry and found the results wanting. The reduction in crime was not what was promised, and the everyday citizen was being disadvantaged by having a hurdle they must jump over. Some states (New York, Hawai’i, etc.) even required concealed carry applicants to present “proper cause” for why they needed personal defense, and if the reasoning wasn’t good enough in the eyes of the State, they were declined. But as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas penned in the Bruen decision of 2022, a topic which we cover in another article in detail here, “We know of no other Constitutional Right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need.” This barrier has historically been discriminatory; racist and classist, not in its purpose, but in its function and enforcement.
Imagine you’re a single mom in the rougher, low-income neighborhoods of your city. As a fact of demographics, your inner-city community is predominantly people of color, due to historical systemic racism forcing non-whites into the poorer areas. Street violence, mugging, robbery, and crime is at a heightened level compared to the wealthier districts, and when the cops show up they’re too late or they make the problem worse. You want to take your safety into your own hands when you’re walking home at 1:00 a.m. from your third job down at the diner. You look into what it takes to obtain a concealed carry permit, but you find that the permit costs $100, money you’d rather go towards caring for your children. You read more and learn that there is a 8-hour class required, meaning that you would have to miss a full day of work since the classes are rarely on weekends. The class costs an additional $100 to boot. Money and time is flying in the wrong direction but you decide your safety is worth it and you take the class, pass the marksmanship assessment, and apply for your permit. But when you get to the Sheriff’s office they ask you “why do you need it?” The Sheriff says that you are not a special class of person; you’re not an attorney who prosecutes criminals, you’re not a celebrity who’s recognized by everyone, you’re not a jeweler who deals in large amounts of cash. You’re just a regular citizen, and therefore, your life isn’t as important as theirs. Because your state institutes “proper cause” requirements, you’re denied. Your time, money, and effort is for nothing; all because you’re viewed as a second class citizen.
Imagine you’re a wealthy person in an affluent suburb. You can lose out on 8 hours of pay no sweat, throw the $200 at the class and permit without blinking, or you simply realize that you live in a wealthy gated community with police on speed dial and private security on standby and you don’t even need a CCW.
Imagine you’re a local criminal. You look at the carry laws and scoff, illegally conceal your illegally purchased illegally modified full-auto Glock in your pants, and go about your day of committing more illegal acts.
Constitutional Carry bypasses a historically racist and classist barrier that forced American citizens to be unarmed in the face of armed felons who DON’T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT LAWS. If a person is willing to rob, rape, and kill people, do they really care about a law that says they can’t put their jacket over their 9mm? A carry permit is only affecting law-abiding citizens and has no effect on the actual evildoers themselves. We need no permit to exercise a natural Right like free speech and safety from unreasonable search and seizure. The Constitution guarantees these Rights cannot be abridged by the government; the Constitution is our permit.
Constitutional Carry is about one thing and one thing only: making the hyenas fear the gazelles.