There has always been concealed carry laws. The difference between before "W" and now is that it was far more difficult for people to get concealed carry, except, for lawyers.
July 11, 2013
By Clara McCarthy
July 11, 2013
By Clara McCarthy
On Tuesday, (click here) Illinois became the 50th state to enact concealed-carry legislation. The Illinois law
allows concealed guns on private property and places of work and
worship unless property owners post signage that indicates otherwise; it
prohibits
guns in schools, parks, child care facilities, government buildings,
public transportation, and establishments where the majority of revenue
comes from alcohol sales, among other places. The big picture: It is now
perfectly legal to carry a concealed firearm in public everywhere in
the country except for Washington, D.C., with varying restrictions on
who exactly is allowed to carry and where he or she can do so.
The first modern concealed-carry law
was enacted in Georgia in 1976. The real push, though, has come in the
last 15 years, when 29 states have passed concealed-carry (also called
“right to carry”) legislation. The NRA and other gun supporters have
pushed for concealed-carry laws by relying on the “more guns, less
crime” hypothesis, which posits that increasing the volume of
law-abiding gun owners will make the country safer. This hypothesis has
been promoted aggressively by gun rights advocate and author John Lott,
who defended this principle in the aftermath of the shootings in
Tucson. “Just as you can deter criminals with higher arrest or
conviction rates, letting victims defend themselves also deters
criminals,” he wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times. “With concealed handguns, criminals don’t know whether victims can defend themselves until they attack.”...
