Two hundred sixty-eight people are shot every day in the United States of America. This leads to 97,820 people hit with a bullet per year. Firearms cause problems and they were made to kill. Of course they can save lives for self defense if the owner of the gun feels threatened, but this is not always the case. Just because the shooter claims he/she fired for self defense, does not conclude that it was. Some crooks get away with harming innocent people with their firearms. The concealed carry issue is a very debatable topic and has been for a long while. Many people supporting concealed carry say there are only bad people, not bad guns. The opposing side thinks if everyone had a gun to protect themselves, against no one having a gun to hurt others in the first place. It is understandable that firearms are not the only weapons, but because they are becoming easier to acquire, firearms are shooting to the top of the weapon list. Concealed carry should be banned.

As time goes on since the concealed carry law was passed, more and more households contain a firearm. In fact, 45% of households have a gun. This causes higher suicide rates with firearms because they are very accessible. Houses with guns are five times more likely to experience suicide. Think about a teenager having a bad enough day to go and grab his/hers father’s gun from the basement and commit suicide, just because of a bad day and a bad choice. That small, yet important decision could have never happened if the gun was not available. The teenager could have slept on the emotions and felt better in the morning, too: one less life lost. More than half of firearm deaths that happen in America are suicides, and half of all suicides are executed using guns.

America has the highest gun ownership rate in the world. Americans should not be proud of that statistic. In 2012, legal gun purchases were at their highest in the U.S.A. Now think about the illegal purchases -- it added up to be even higher. Also in America, 270 million firearms are possessed by civilians, while only 897,000 are carried by the police. The number of firearms owned by citizens should not be 270 times the amount of guns owned by the law enforcers. Even children are being labeled as murderers because they accidentally (or purposefully) fire at someone else with their parent’s gun! Last year in 2013, a four year old shot his father on accident and the dad died while in the hospital. The child found the firearm at a friend’s house he and his father were visiting. He asked the two men what the contraption did, and in the process he shot his father in the chest. Does the world have to wait for more accidental deaths for attention to come to this issue?

Concealed carry can be talked about in both ways; either for it or against it. Those who are for it have solid facts to support themselves, including incidents. One incident occurred in February 2013, when Marvell Weaver was playing the “Knockout Game.” The game includes people going up to innocent others and literally knocking them out just for kicks. Weaver came up to a father waiting for his daughter to get off the bus and he tased the dad. The taser faltered and the father shot Weaver with his personal firearm. No one died, and the dad was just protecting himself. Self defense is important and it was the reason for allowing the concealed carry law, abiding by the Constitution. The catch is that Marvell Weaver did not have to play the “Knockout Game” (he even admitted that he should not have joined his friends) and the innocent dad would not ever had to pull his gun on anyone. Yes, he is safe from harm and luckily Weaver lived, but violence is never the answer. In 1982, Kennesaw, Georgia passed a law requiring each household to carry at least one gun. Soon after, their burglary rate dropped 89%. This was great for them, but what about more populated cities and ones that already have higher crime rates, too? The government cannot put this law to action in all cities. The burglary rate alone decreased out of all of the other crimes in Kennesaw because only a fool would try to rob someone who is armed. This is a great way to fix burglary problems in their city, but what else can the people do around the country to prevent murders and firearm irresponsibility.

If concealed carry cannot be banned, firearms must be safer. One way to insure that firearms are only saving lives instead of taking them, is to follow up and continue TriggerSmart research. This company patented a childproof (or anyone proof) gun safety system in the United States. Part of the system includes that only an authorized fingerprint operates the firearm. Another way the system protects is by creating safe zones that automatically shut down firearms that run on technology once inside the zone. Technology is key in this day and age, and it is great that it can come into play with protecting citizens from harm. To make a community safer, a local government can look into adding these safe zones into their town. Even Barack Obama planned to prevent gun violence back in January 2013. He said background checks will be improved, assault weapons will be banned, and large capacity of ammunition will not be allowed. Obama took action and now what he said is done. Since background checks were improved, it is becoming harder and harder to receive a gun if not qualified. It is agreeable to say that there are not bad guns--only bad people--but it is the bad people that get ahold of the guns and make bad decisions.
Concealed carry should be eliminated. Too many firearm incidents take place every year. Without irresponsible people owning guns, they would never harm the innocent. It is clear that concealed carry is an issue and it needs to be fixed.