For the past 30 years—since Right-to-Carry laws became a topic of discussion—those opposed to law-abiding Americans carrying firearms for self-defense have made the same baseless claims. “It’ll be like the Wild West,” they shout. “Blood will run in the streets,” they assure anyone willing to listen.
And it has never come to be.
Yet that doesn’t stop some—in this case, the editorial board of The Tennessean—from making the same baseless claims about the current movement to pass “permitless” carry laws. “One can only imagine how many fender-benders, arguments over parking spots, domestic squabbles and the like will deliver a cascade of grief and regret to the families and friends of innocent victims,” these sage editors wrote in a recent op-ed.
Of course, that won’t happen, either. In truth, violent criminals who would use their firearms to harm others already carry guns wherever and whenever they want. Several states have passed “permitless” carry measures over the past few years, and none of them have seen such senseless violence from law-abiding gun owners as naysayers predict.
