Sep 3, 2015 3 min read

There were two recent editorials in the Observer-Reporter, “Too many packing heat” and “Bag searches a sad commentary on gun-infested society.” These editorials made the following claims: “Walking or riding around with a loaded gun is irrational” and “For allowing our society to be awash in guns, we are all paying a price.”

I would say it isn’t much of a stretch to assume the newspaper’s position on guns, gun owners and the Second Amendment is jaundiced at best. So, I asked myself is it truly irrational to carry a gun? Is an inanimate object so dangerous that its mere presence is to be feared?

Well, to answer those questions I did some research. “Too many packing heat” posited that “Too often, we read of road-rage incidents in which an angry driver pulled out a gun…” So, I typed “road-rage gun” into the Observer-Reporter‘s own search engine. For the last 30 days, there was a total of one article about this phenomena and it happened in Greene County. Since the editorial stated there are some 28,000 concealed carry permit holders in Washington County, I found this lack of reporting on what should be an out-of-control crime statistic troubling. I dug a little deeper. Here are some of the things the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has to say about guns and homicides:

• In 2003, there were 2,596,993 total reported deaths of all kinds. Of these, 11,208 were homicides by a firearm, which is less than half-a-percent for the entire country.

• Vermont, where no permission to carry a gun is required, has for 10 years in a row remained one of the 10 safest states in America.

• In 1987, with a murder rate above the national average, Florida passed concealed carry. Over the next 15 years, the murder rate fell by 52 percent.

• In 1982, Kennesaw Ga., a town 27 miles from Atlanta, passed a law requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in the house. In the next year, the residential burglary rate dropped 89 percent compared to a statewide drop of 10.4 percent and, 10 years later, the rate was still 72 percent lower than it had been prior 1981.

If you put the numbers on a scale, it tips into the category of “guns save lives” by a lot more than the “guns are dangerous” category.

The bottom line is this: murder, rape, burglary and other crimes are already illegal. The criminal hardly cares which law he breaks. Restricting guns serves only to deny the right of self-preservation to law-abiding citizens.

If you don’t want to carry a gun, don’t. But don’t print a bunch of hysteria and falsehoods in an effort to take away might right to do so. How about just thanking me for making you safer simply by exercising that right.

Wes Parry

McDonald