My Personal Experience of Public Speaking

Just imagine for a moment if you would. You Just finished a long hard week of work, and you are looking forward to the reward of going out for a night on the town. You go home get cleaned up, put on your sharpest outfit and head over to your dates house to pick her up. Nothing could be more perfect. The evening air is the right temperature with just enough breeze to catch your cologne and waft it through the air.

And the evening itself is enough to remember because of the moons reflection off of the newly harvested fields and ever-flowing creeks. It would seem as though this would be the perfect setting to a wonderful date. And yes it would be, except for the traumatic experience, which encountered one of my closest friends on the ride home, after dropping his date off. He was on his way home and in between towns when my friend saw a truck pulled over to the side of the road. Hood up, doors open, and the truck itself turned towards the ditch on the side of the road.!

Being from the small town he was from he believed in always giving a helping hand to those in need. Especially when he knew people in his community had been there for him before in his time of crises. He was flagged down by an individual that had told him they had a blow out on their vehicle and that the passenger was injured and would greatly appreciate his help. My friend stepped out of the vehicle and around the passenger side of the parked truck, and before he knew it he had a gun drawn upon his chest and a man now demanding money instead of help.

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My friend complied and gave the man his wallet and money he had just eamed to get him through the weeks ahead. The assailant then ordered my friend to turn his back toward him and walk back to his vehicle. When my friend heard this he knew it meant his life was in eminate danger and if he turned around he was as sure as shot. So when he started backing up facing the assailant heading toward his vehicle, WHAM he was hit.!

He told me impact of the bullet felt like he was hit by a sledgehammer and it's piercing of his skin felt as though a white hot poker had been rammed through him. The assailant left my friend for dead not realizing he had not fatally wounded him. My friend did fully recover but still has the scars to remember what had happened that night.

When my friend first told me this story, I always though it was ironic how at the time conceal to carry laws in Texas, where this incident took place, were months away from being passed. I always pondered the idea what if he were allowed to carry a gun at the time this happened. Or even if he didnt want to carry one, would it of deterred this individual from attacking my friend based on the premonition that he may have one on his person. Today there are many crimes in which I believe would be deterred and in fact be drastically reduced if we were to impose conceal and carry laws in this state.

Today 31 states now have right to carry laws, respecting the fundamental individual right of self- defense by allowing people to carry firearms for protection against criminals. 127 million Americans, nearly half the u.s. population, including 60% of handgun owners, live in right to carry states (H. Sterling).

In a landmark study Prof. John r. Lott and David B. Mustard of the University of Chicago, found that allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons deters violent crimes and it appears to produce no increase in accidental deaths. If those states which did not have right to carry concealed gun provisions had adopted them in 1992, approximately 1,570 murders; 4177 rapes; and over 60,000 aggravated assaults would have been avoided yearly. On the average, right to carry states have 26% less total violent crime, 20% less homicide, 29%less rape, 39% less robbery and 22% less aggravated assault.

Many people today have many misconceptions about the right to carry laws being enacted. Take for example of Texas. Before implementing their right to carry laws many citizens raised questions about minor incidents escalating into killings as the concealed carry law placed more guns in irresponsible hands. Concerns that were also raised were that criminals would be undeterred by an increase in armed citizens. Both of these predictions were wrong.

According to the Violence Policy Center, Licensees were 5.7 times less likely to be arrested for violent offenses than the general public, which amounts to 127 persons per 100,000 versus 730 per 100,000. Licensees were 13.5 times less likely to be arrested for non-violent offenses than the general public 386 per 100,000 versus 5,212 per 100,000. No licensee had yet been arrested for negligent manslaughter.

If the law were to be proposed for this state many would ask what are some of the strict guidelines which would be imposed to be a permit holder. Almost all states follow this set of standards. One must be 21 years of age, submit a photo and fingerprints for a background check, pay a training fee and take more than eight hours of course work. In addition to these preliminary processing steps, applicants must pass both a written test covering laws pertaining to deadly force and gun safety, and a shooting accuracy test.

In the early 1990's Texas' serious crime rate was 38 percent above the national average. Since then serious crime in Texas has dropped 50% faster than for the nation as a whole. Texas is just one of the few states that has seen great results from this bill being enacted despite some of the public's concerns for what turned out to be misconstrued thoughts and ideas. Just as in Florida a few years back when their conceal to carry law was enacted, and results were blatantly obvious when the criminals were no longer attacking local citizens. But moving on to the individuals they knew couldn't carry concealed weapons, the tourists. That's why so many rental car agencies have tried to conceal their cars as not being part of any type of rental agency, for their customers protection.

The information in this speech was intended to make you think a little bit more about society and the preventative measures we can take to deter some of the crimes committed today. I just wanted to clear up any of the misconceptions or preconceived notions you may or may not of had about concealed weapons laws. So next time a bill is proposed in the state make sure you know all of the facts before it gets vetoed. Thank-you.

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