Stephen's Notes: Gun Control vs Constitutional Carry—Solving gun Violence

There's a new report out of Ohio on gun violence.

In the summer of 2022, the state legislature passed Constitutional Carry, allowing people to legally carry weapons in public, as the Constitution says they have a right to do.

 So, Bowling Green University did a study along with the Ohio Attorney General's Center for Justice Research on whether Constitutional Carry led to more violent crime or less.  They compared the amount of violent crime in the state's 8 largest cities from 2021 through 2023.

 NBC4 in Columbus reported on the study.

 So, according to this study, moving to constitutional carry didn't increase crime in Ohio.  There was an overall decrease, actually.  And, the cities that saw a decrease had more of a drop in crime than the two cities that saw a slight increase.

 This is one of the things that's completely baffling to me is the left's position on this.  They say guns are the problem.  They aren't.  The problem is that some people use guns for illegal purposes.

 Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) talked about this in an op-ed for Newsweek.

 "Opponents of the Second Amendment seem to have painted themselves into a corner. They want to reduce gun violence, but they think cops are worse than criminals. They want more gun laws, but they don't want to punish people who break those laws."

  Exactly!

 If you want to cut down on gun crime, then you need to increase the enforcement of existing gun laws.  You need to punish people who actually use guns in crimes!

 From Senator Kennedy's op-ed...

"Leftist cities often refuse to enforce the law and prosecute criminals—regardless of the severity of their crimes. More gun laws will only make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves from criminals.

 Guns aren't the problem; criminals who use guns are the problem. Anti-gun activists need to own up to the fact that their policies have left many innocent families defenseless in high-crime areas by demonizing and demoralizing police forces throughout the country. If they want to address gun violence, supporting law enforcement is the first step."

  This is why Ohio's Constitutional Carry law is so important and why it's helping to lower crime in the cities in that state.  Police forces are down on officers, and that allows for more criminal behavior.

 Senator Kennedy continued...

"Unless you peaked in high school, you understand that more cops will result in less crime. One study on policing found that each officer added to the police force resulted in four fewer violent crimes and 15 fewer property crimes. Another study found that a 10 percent increase in the police force resulted in a 13 percent drop in violent crime."

 But, cities aren't hiring more cops, which means the protection of law-abiding citizens more and more will be the responsibility of the citizens themselves.  And, it's a lot easier to protect yourself when you aren't outgunned.

As Senator Kennedy very aptly put it, “Leftist cities often refuse to enforce the law and prosecute criminals—regardless of the severity of their crimes. More gun laws will only make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves from criminals.” And that very simply is the problem from Cincinnati to Shreveport-Bossier to Baton Rouge and down to New Orleans.