“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

With these words, the Founding Fathers guaranteed the right of a private citizen to own firearms. Controversy has surrounded the issue ever since. On April 29, 2003, the governor of Minnesota signed into law a bill which allowed private citizens to carry a loaded pistol on their person. This law was appealed and overruled when Ramsey County District Judge John Finley stated that the law was unconstitutional in July of 2004. Finally, on May 24, 2005, a similar bill was signed into law which again granted this right to private citizens. The new law guaranteed the right of a citizen to carry a loaded weapon on their person, as long as that citizen passed a series of tests. This is known as the Concealed Carry (CC) law.

So what? Perhaps you think that this law doesn’t affect you; after all, you probably don’t feel the need to carry a weapon here at MLC. Does it make you feel uneasy, though, knowing that the gentleman in the car next to yours might have a revolver under his seat? Might the old lady you help across the street be hiding a handgun in her purse? Then you see the sign posted at the grocery store: “Hy-Vee prohibits guns on these premises.” Do you dash inside, hoping to flee the next re-enactment of the O.K. Corral? Perhaps you nervously look over your shoulder, expecting the worst.

According to the State of Minnesota website, more than 15,000 permits for concealed weapons were issued in the first year of the law. Currently there are approximately 30,000 people in the state with a registered “concealed carry” permit. (This number fell far short of the expected 90,000.) Don’t worry, however; not just anyone who walks in to his or her local sheriff’s office is allowed to carry a firearm. Before the law was signed into effect, citizens were allowed to carry a firearm – as long as it was personally approved by the county sheriff or local police chief. During an interview, it came out that the former Nicollet county sheriff never let anyone carry a concealed weapon in his county; he didn’t want to be held liable if something were to go wrong. Under the new law, a citizen can be armed if he or she passes a background check (including questionnaire on mental health), firearms safety course, and pays the one-time $100 fee. People restricted from CC are those who have committed domestic violence, felonies, have a restraining order against them, or have committed one of more than forty other violent crimes.

There are two basic ways in which the concealed carry law affects each & every citizen in Minnesota. The first is a normal citizen’s feeling of safety. Will he or she feel safe doing everyday actions without a gun? The second way each citizen is affected is by the overall crime rate: will the Concealed Carry law impact crime in any way? Will the rate of violent crime go up, stay the same, or go down?

I talked with a few law enforcement officers in the area. Many of the officers who worked “on the road” took no issue with the law. One deputy in particular was in favor of the law—although he said, “As someone who carries a firearm every day, it’s heavy and cumbersome, a pain to carry…it doesn’t go well with clothes.” This deputy also said that the average citizen had nothing to fear, thanks to the effort it takes to buy a CC permit. Most criminals would not take the time to get a CC permit; they would just break the law and skip the hassle of a permit. The people who go through with the process aren’t troublemakers. Obtaining a CC permit also requires a person to register all of his or her firearms with the authorities.

Law enforcement agencies strive to provide one officer for every 3,000 to 5,000 people of a city or town, with a few extra officers for administration and office staffing. In the rural communities of southern Minnesota, this can make response times a bit longer than larger, more urban areas. Most southern Minnesota towns only have a handful of officers, since crime rates are generally lower in small towns. However, if two crimes occur at the same time, an officer would not be able to get to each in time. Having the CC law gives private citizens the chance to defend themselves and be on an equal plane with their attacker—regardless of age or strength.

If Minnesota’s experience follows the experience of other states, the overall crime rate will drop. Right-to-carry states (38 out of 50 as of 2005) have 24% lower total violent crime, 37% lower robbery, and 22% lower homicide rates than states which do not have these laws (www.nraila.org). The statewide impact of citizens with firearms is evident in these numbers. Moreover, a citizen does not need to have a gun before he or she reaps the benefits of the CC law. The mere thought that a person might have a gun is often enough to deter violent crime. Suddenly, the old lady next door isn’t such an easy target any more—the playing field is leveled.

Conversely, our nation’s capital banned handguns in 1976. Although it’s not a state, it provides a concentrated case study of what happens when gun control goes overboard. The Washington, D.C. homicide rate had been falling before the ban; by 1991, fifteen years later, homicide had risen more than 200%. One might argue that crime rose all across America. Not so; the average homicide rate of large cities in the United States only rose 12% in the same time period (FBI Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia, via www.nraila.org). Perhaps the right-wing mantra is true: “If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.”

Whether or not you agree with Minnesota’s CC law, the law will most likely be here to stay. In an outdoor-sports state like Minnesota, trappers no longer have to unload and put their guns in cases when driving between trap lines. The effort of getting the original law overturned and the new law passed has assured that the law is constitutional. Finally, the encouraging effects that the law will have on crime in the next few years will show that the CC law was—and is—a good idea for all of Minnesota.

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