As someone heavily vested in public health issues I am adamantly opposed to concealed handguns and laws that allow them to be carried in public. Handguns are responsible for a high percentage of preventable deaths and are used in most suicides. They do not prevent crime as much as they exacerbate it. But the actual scientific facts as they relate to handguns are lost in the din of misleading information and biased science. I urge you to weigh the scientific evidence that proves that legislation allowing concealed handguns is based on distorted fact, and in doing so to initiate a concerted scientific and public health effort that reverses the current trend concerning this vital public health issue.
The public is not safer with concealed handguns; in fact, it is a serious public health issue that places everyone at risk. During the first year of ownership rates of suicides and homicides increase. States having permissive concealed handgun legislation are actually more responsible for increases in violent crimes and suicides, but advocates lobbying for such legislation use junk science as a primary means of gaining the advantage. Historically, it began with an oft-cited study conducted in 1997 that was immediately debunked as fraught with misleading statistics and bias. It is time for a concerted scientific and public health effort to emerge that counters the misleading tactics that have pervaded public debates concerning concealed handguns.
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It may be that people who own hand guns believe they, and their loved ones, are more safe from the dangers of the world around them. Actually, the moment a handgun is purchased it increases the likelihood of violence. Not only is there a rise in suicides during the first year of gun ownership, while homicides rates increase as well (Wintemute, 2008,). The belief that laws allowing open carry concealed handguns as having a direct impact on the reduction of violent crime is also wrong, as states having passed “shall issue” handgun laws, allowing individuals to carry concealed handguns unless otherwise prevented by statute, and states having other permissive legislation have also experienced a rise in homicides and suicides, or they had no effect at all (Rosengart, Cummings, Nathens, Heagerty, Maier, & Rivara, 2005). Such gun laws have an origin story, beginning with political pressure from the stalwarts of gun ownership, the National Rifle Association (NRA). Using bad science, the organization has been successful in convincing state and federal legislators that the only way of reducing violent crime was through a return to the glory days of the Wild West (McDowell, Loftin, & Wiersema, 1995).
The NRA based it lobbying efforts on a 1997 study conducted by Lott & Mustard (1997) who explored effects of permissive concealed handgun laws from 1977 to 1992. They concluded that states having such laws saw reductions in violent crimes. The authors stressed that states having no such laws were actually responsible for thousands of murders, rapes and aggravated assaults every year (Lott & Mustard, 1997). But, what the NRA failed to mention, if the association actually knew or cared, is that the study was rife with measurement errors in key variables concerning states either having or not having permissive concealed gun laws, and the research was loaded in bias because the authors appear to have intentionally omitted variables regarding such issues as poverty, an important issue because the authors point their gaze directly at minority populations (Webster, Vernick, Ludwig, & Lester (1997).
Concealed handguns, and whether they should be allowed to be carried in public, is an extremely important public health issue. State and federal legislators can no longer rely the on the junk science that has been central to arguments posed by the NRA that has gained much favor by our political representatives. It is time to counter such misleading and dangerous efforts by establishing a committee comprised of scientists and public health officials who work closely with the National Academy of Science, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Research Council, for purposes of publically disproving the disinformation concerning concealed handguns, and to develop an effective strategy to lobby against permission open-carry laws.
- Lott, Jr, J. R., & Mustard, D. B. (1997). Crime, deterrence, and right-to-carry concealed handguns. The Journal of Legal Studies, 26(1), 1-68. Retrieved from http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/
- McDowall, D., Loftin, C., & Wiersema, B. (1995). Easing concealed firearms laws: Effects on homicide in three states. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 193-206. Retrieved from http://www.fplp.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/
- Rosengart, M., Cummings, P., Nathens, A., Heagerty, P., Maier, R., & Rivara, F. (2005). An evaluation of state firearm regulations and homicide and suicide death rates. Injury Prevention, 11(2), 77-83.
- Webster, D. W., Vernick, J. S., Ludwig, J., & Lester, K. J. (1997). Flawed gun policy research could endanger public safety. American Journal of Public Health, 87(6), 918-921.
- Wintemute, G. J. (2008). Guns, fear, the Constitution, and the public’s health. New England Journal of Medicine, 358(14), 1421-1424.
