Arrest underminds anti-constitutional carry concerns

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Constitutional carry passed in Georgia earlier this year. When it passed, a lot of people freaked out over it. They claimed the law would make it difficult for law enforcement, that they wouldn’t be able to catch bad guys who are carrying illegally.

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Now, on one level, I can see where the concerns are. After all, if you see someone with a gun, it’s not like you can ask for their permit to make sure they’re legal.

Granted, based on some judicial rulings, they couldn’t anyway, but still…

However, an arrest at a Georgia park shows that the police can still find who is carrying illegally.

Police in Georgia say they arrested a parent found with a firearm and drugs while children were present.

Parents alerted the park rangers of another parent who had drugs and a gun, police said on Facebook.

A photo with the parent’s face blurred out with a gun and the alleged drugs on the ranger’s vehicle were also shared.

So clearly, constitutional carry didn’t preclude police from finding someone carrying illegally, now did it?

“But that’s different!” someone may claim.

How, though? How is it all that different?

Carrying a gun is not and should not be considered a suspicious act in and of itself. It’s a constitutionally protected right, for crying out loud, so the mere presence of a firearm shouldn’t be considered something worthy of alarm or police intervention.

A person with a gun and drugs? That’s a bit different, now isn’t it?

Law enforcement was notified of what the man was doing. They investigated and made the arrest. The constitutional carry law never played a factor. Why would it, though? He wasn’t carrying lawfully.

Yet many opponents of constitutional carry will claim that this exact scenario just won’t happen. It can and it does. There’s no way this is the only gun arrest made by police in a constitutional carry state.

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So why don’t we hear about them more? That’s easy. It’s common enough it doesn’t make headlines most of the time. This one did for a couple of reasons. One is that it had a strange twist–the suspect was on the opening day of youth football season–and another is that it was kind of a slow news day in a lot of regards, which meant people looking for content.

Stuff like this happens regularly, and constitutional carry laws don’t actually prevent it, despite what opponents may try to claim.

The truth is that criminals are still being caught. The only difference is now people in these states don’t have to jump through hoops in order to exercise a clearly protected right explicitly mentioned in the Second Amendment when it says, “the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

In these states, there’s less infringement and bad guys are still being caught.

Now, give me a good reason that constitutional carry is a problem that doesn’t revolve around feelings and made-up concerns. I’ll be happy to wait.

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