Gun Control & RKBA

Researchers have suggested that the presence of visible firearms may alter behavior and increase aggressive and violent behaviors.*1 Multiple studies show that restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons can increase public safety.

For example, recent analyses have shown that states with weak standards for concealed carry have higher rates of violent crime*2 and gun homicides *3 than would be expected if the states had stricter standards for public carry.

White Supremacists have long used firearms—and permissive open carry laws—to threaten and intimidate others, with examples of such violence going back to the Reconstruction era. *4

In 2017, a group of white supremacists protesting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee marched through Charlottesville, Virginia, openly carrying military-style rifles as a means to intimidate and suppress the Constitutional rights of others. *5

White supremacists have also exploited weak open carry laws to threaten and intimidate at other rallies across the country,6 as well as in front of houses of worship7 and electoral campaign offices. *8

*1 Arlin J. Benjamin Jr., Sven Kepes, and Brad J. Bushman, “Effects of Weapons on Aggressive Thoughts, Angry Feelings, Hostile Appraisals, and Aggressive Behavior: A Meta-analytic Review of the Weapons Effect Literature,” Personality and Social Psychology Review (2017); Arlin James Benjamin Jr. and Brad J. Bushman, “The Weapons Priming Effect,” Current Opinion in Psychology 12 (2016): 45-48; David Hemenway, Mary Vriniotis, and Matthew Miller, “Is an Armed Society a Polite Society? Guns and Road Rage,” Accident Analysis & Prevention 38, no. 4 (2006): 687-695.

*2 John J. Donohue, Abhay Aneja, and Kyle D. Weber, “Right‐to‐Carry Laws and Violent Crime: A Comprehensive Assessment Using Panel Data and a State‐Level Synthetic Control Analysis.” Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 16, no. 2 (2019): 198–247.

*3 Michael Siegel, et al., “Easiness of Legal Access to Concealed Firearm Permits and Homicide Rates in the United States,” American Journal of Public Health 107, no. 12 (2017): 1923–1929.

*4 Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (New York: Harper and Row, 1988).

*5 David Frum, “The Chilling Effect of Openly Displayed Firearms,” The Atlantic, August 16, 2017, https://bit.ly/2w2dZgK.

*8 Emily Tate, “Armed Trump Supporters Protest In Front Of Democrat’s Campaign Office,” The Huffington Post, October 14, 2016, https://bit.ly/2LLxR0O.