Concealed Carry Marches On In America’s Heartland

(Springfield, VA) — Yesterday, Missouri became the latest state to adopt concealed carry legislation. In the narrowest vote imaginable, the Missouri Senate joined the House in overriding Gov. Bob Holden’s veto, thus making Missouri the 36th state in the union to let residents carry firearms without giving state officials the power to unduly deny law-abiding citizens of their right of self-protection.

“And now there were five,” said GOA Director of Communications, Erich Pratt. “Only five states continue to follow the failed policies of the past by completely denying their citizens the right to carry firearms away from home.

“Missouri becomes the fourth state this year to join the ‘concealed carry club,’ Pratt said. “The progress is encouraging because this wave is only moving in one direction — that is, in the direction of liberalizing concealed carry.

“No state has repealed its carry law after allowing its citizens to conceal firearms. That’s because concealed carry works. In each state, opponents have predicted Armageddon, falsely claiming that shootouts in bars and on highways would become commonplace after citizens could start packing heat. But the facts have been otherwise,” Pratt said.

In states like Florida and Texas, legislators and police who initially opposed their state’s carry laws have since admitted their laws have not led to “Wild West” shootings as they thought. And in Michigan, most recently, opponents have again admitted that its two-year-old carry law has not had the ill effects they once predicted.

While heralding the ability of more citizens to protect themselves, Gun Owners of America remains concerned that many honest Missourians will not be able to jump over the high and costly hurdles that their state’s new law imposes.

“The law in the Show Me state is among the most restrictive in the nation,” Pratt said. “And you can be sure that we will be working to remove the restrictions that infringe upon the citizens’ Second Amendment rights.

“Nevertheless, a year from now, concealed carry opponents will be eating ‘crow.’ They will see that all the hullabaloo about gunfights in the streets was simply wrong, and that putting more guns in good people’s hands will have been a benefit to society,” Pratt said.