Check this out http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2009/07/20/thune-lautenberg-clash-on-concealed-carry-gun-proposal.html

It is scheduled to be voted on in the senate this Wednesday. It would allow people sho have a carry license or permit in their home state to carry concealed anywhere in the USA except Illinois or Wisconsin.

That would be as close to the original right to bear arms as I have seen in my entire lifetime if it actually goes through.

Contact your politicians and tell them to vote for this to happen if they believe in the US Constitution 2nd amendment or the fair trade and reporting act for that matter.

in south carolina i have a permit. cause these days. you just never no.

oh goody, more distraught, pissed off people packing a piece...
Time to head for the hills.

not pissed off. oh buy the way i was trained buy your army. so guess you can blame them. for us.

So is your comment supposed to be a request for private safety firearms training lessons? I would be more then happy to volunteer my time and efforts for that if you come to my hills although you might call it mountains that is.

You see I carry anytime when I am not on University property or anywhere it is prohibited. I sometimes carry concealed and others I carry openly.

The idea of more people with guns is a falsity actually as the law applies only to people who have licenses to conceal in their home state. It will force that license to be honored by all but two states. Those people will still have to abide by the state laws they are in or travel to. On the other hand it will allow many people to travel while armed out of their home state which is not possible in many cases with the current reciprocity laws.

I always find it funny that people equate conceal and carry to pissed off people packing guns. But criminals don't have permits and carry guns and are usually pissed off and looking to rob somebody. People applying for permits to carry guns aren't the ones you should be worried about, but if you wanna run to the hills, you go right ahead.

to those who say . only crazy folks carry guns. we have little military army here in country in south Carolina. we train twice a month. cause someday the government will come trying to take what we have worked hard for.

The fact that the human feels a need to carry a weapon for power is sick in and of itself. Pissed off legal gun owners brandish and use their weapons in illegal displays of power all the time.

We do not need more guns in public we need less. No legal gun owner saves people in times of crisis as has been implied they would all along. Legal gun owners can be just as dangerous to the public as the illegal gun owner can be. There is no difference when they are shooting and killing innocent people.

Thanks, I know how to shoot a gun and I have my own mountains to run to when the time comes..

Well I disagree with your statement as Police are legal gun owners and without them you would probably not feel safe. As pointed out most legal gun owners do not commit crimes or violence. You mad a comment of people illegally brandishing weapons and in my state there is no law against open carry or brandishing for that matter.

There is a major difference between legal gun owners and criminals you are not seeing. You speak of innocent people getting injured and a responsible legal gun owner would not take a shot at a target without knowing what is behind it as they are responsible for the bullets final resting place. A criminal does not care. Therefore it is the criminals that get hurt or killed not the innocent people.

If you think guns should be outlawed entirely maybe you should consider moving out to another country like Mexico where you could not buy a gun legally. I bet you are far safer here though. You see our country was based on a few simple rights and among them is the right to keep and bear arms.

It is not a matter of showing off or acting like a big shot as you would like us to believe. I sleep most of the time in a neighborhood that I am a minority because I speak English. They have international street gang presences here. I would rather be judged by 12 then carried by six at least with a gun I can have a chance to control my own lifespan.

I would like to be able to go anywhere and feel the same safety level as in my home state.

Considering you are talking of responsible gun owners here as if they are the norm. I have seen the results of legal irresponsible gun owners where innocents die. They are not mentally stable to begin with but legal enough to carry weapons of death. I cannot vote nor approve any laws that allows a possible innocent to die at the hands of a legal gun.

Unless gun owners endure strenuous mental capacity tests, stress tests, anger management testing, etc... there should not be any legal gun owners who do not need the weapon for their job.

Where do you think most of the illegal guns come from on the street? They are stolen from the irresponsible legal gun owner. So they are just being handed to them.

Where are the stats to back up your claim?

Irresponsible people are the one's that kill not guns.

Guns are as responsible for deaths as pencils are to mispeled words.

Statistic show that more people, innocent people, are killed or injured in their own homes from guns than by a criminal on a rampage.

I personal feel that we do not need more gun control laws but instead better ammunition control laws. An empty gun can not hurt or kill.

In my state a teenager 16 -18 can walk into a local sporting goods store and purchase ammunition. That fact alone shows that the laws need to be changed.

pencils in the hands of the wrong people...you could put an eye out

exactly - guns in the wrong hands can kill

oh more bleeding hearts. we have to have guns since must of you want illegal aliens to invade our country.

please explain what guns and gun control has to do with illegal aliens?

Statistics, Gun Control Issues, and Safety
Gunshot wounds inpact severely on the criminal justice as well as health care systems. Some basic statistics are important in understanding the magnitude and severity of the social and economic burden to the U.S.

In the U.S. for 2001, there were 29,573 deaths from firearms, distributed as follows by mode of death: Suicide 16,869; Homicide 11,348; Accident 802; Legal Intervention 323; Undetermined 231.(CDC, 2004) This makes firearms injuries one of the top ten causes of death in the U.S. The number of firearms-related injuries in the U.S., both fatal and non-fatal, increased through 1993, but has since declined steadily.(CDC, 2001) However, firearms injuries remain a leading cause of death in the U.S., particularly among youth (CDC, 2004).

The number of non-fatal injuries is considerable--over 200,000 per year in the U.S. Many of these injuries require hospitalization and trauma care. A 1994 study revealed the cost per injury requiring admission to a trauma center was over $14,000. The cumulative lifetime cost in 1985 for gunshot wounds was estimated to be $911 million, with $13.4 billion in lost productivity. (Mock et al, 1994) The cost of the improper use of firearms in Canada was estimated at $6.6 billion per year. (Chapdelaine and Maurice, 1996)

The rates of firearms deaths in the U.S. vary significantly by race and sex. The U.S. national average was 10.3 deaths per 100,000 population in 2001. The highest rate was 34.5/100,000 for African-American males, more than double the rate of 16.3/100,000 for white males and well above the rate of 2.7/100,000 for white females. (CDC, 2004)

Firearms Death Rate (per 100,000, age adjusted) for Selected Countries in one year between 1990 and 1995 (Krug, Powell and Dahlberg, 1998)

Gun Control Issues, Public Health, and Safety
The number of firearms injuries remains high in the United States, compared with most of the rest of the world. Firearm suicide rates are strongly impacted by the rate of gun ownership. (Kaplan and Geling, 1998) There is a positive correlation between homicide rates and availability of guns in developed nations. (Hemenway and Miller, 2000) The number of firearms in the hands of private citizens continues to grow each year at a rate far exceeding that of the population as a whole. It might even be said that Americans live in a "gun culture" based upon traditions and behaviors well-entrenched in our society. This is reflected in our constitution, whose second amendment guarantees that "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." Though the application of this amendment applied to maintenance of a militia, and not private gun ownership, the second amendment has been consistently interpreted to protect private ownership of many types of guns.

Thus, the laws of our Federal government as well as the states do not as yet severely restrict the manufacture, sale, and use of firearms by ordinary citizens. "Gun control" is a sensitive issue that evokes strong emotions in persons both for and against control. Politicians find it difficult to deal with this issue. There is disagreement as to whether a reduction in access to or numbers of firearms will have a measurable effect upon crime. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act passed in 1994 in the U.S. established a nationwide requirement that licensed firearms dealers observe a waiting period and initiate a background check for handgun sales (but the law does not apply to secondary markets). So far, this law has not been associated with overall reductions in homicide rate or suicide rate.(Ludwig and Cook, 2000) Perhaps our attitudes--and our tolerances--are reflected in the high visibility of firearms and firearms-inflicted injuries that are portrayed in the media: newspapers, magazines, books, films, and television. (Price et al, 1992) One thing remains certain, despite laws for or against gun control, a lack of care and concern regarding one's fellow human beings, whether in war or through domestic violence, will continue to promote firearms injuries.

Child safety is an important issue. Firearms injuries are the second leading cause of non-natural death in childhood and adolescence. (CDC, 2004) Accidental shooting deaths are most commonly associated with one or more children playing with a gun they found in the home. (Choi, et al, 1994) The person pulling the trigger is a friend, family member, or the victim. (Harruff, 1992) In the period from 1979 to 2000, accidental firearms deaths involving children declined in the U.S., aided by child access prevention laws and felony prosecution of offenders. (Hepburn et al, 2006) A study of nonnatural deaths in a large American city revealed that half of such deaths in persons from 10 to 19 years of age were due to homicide, and firearms were involved in 88% of them. (Heninger and Hanzlick, 2008)

The table below indicates mode of death for firearms injuries in the ten countries with the most reported deaths from firearms for children less than 15 years of age. (CDC, 1997)

Firearms Deaths by Mode of Death for Children <15 Years of Age
Top 10 Countries - Rate per 100,000

In one survey, 10% of families admitted to having unlocked and loaded firearms within easy reach of children (Patterson and Smith, 1987). Another study showed that two-thirds of accidental firearms injuries occured in the home, and one-third involved children under 15. 45% were self-inflicted, and 16% occurred when children were playing with guns. (Morrow and Hudson, 1986) A study from 1991-2000 showed that twice as many people died from unintentional firearm injuries in states in the U.S. where firearm owners were more likely to store their firearms loaded. (Miller, et al, 2005)

The issue of "home defense" or protection against intruders may well be misrepresented. Of 626 shootings in or around a residence in three U.S. cities revealed that, for every time a gun in the home was used in a self-defense or legally justifiable shooting, there were four unintentional shootings, seven criminal assaults or homicides, and 11 attempted or completed suicides (Kellermann et al, 1998). Over 50% of all households in the U.S. admit to having firearms (Nelson et al, 1987). In another study, regardless of storage practice, type of gun, or number of firearms in the home, having a gun in the home was associated with an increased risk of firearm homicide and suicide in the home (Dahlberg, Ikeda and Kresnow, 2004). Persons who own a gun and who engage in abuse of intimate partners such as a spouse are more likely to use a gun to threaten their intimate partner. (Rothman, et al) It would appear that, rather than beign used for defense, most of these weapons inflict injuries on the owners and their families.

Hunting accidents with firearms, despite the large gun ownership in this country and numerous game seasons in most states, remain relatively rare and do not appear to be increasing. (Huiras, et al, 1990) A study in Sweden indicated a rate of 0.074/100,000 and that, when hunting big game, most accidents resulted from a mistaken target. When hunting small game, accidents occurred most frequently as a result of mishandling the gun. Hunting accidents did not increase with increasing gun ownership or numbers of hunters. (Ornehult and Eriksson, 1987)


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http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/TUTORIAL/GUNS/GUNSTAT.html

put your guns down and build a wall

I am a gun toting citizen