When the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity bill failed in Congress last week, Mayor Funkhouser in Kansas City said he was glad it didn’t pass because shootings have been high. People that are against concealed carry permits don’t understand what it is all about.

Those who get the permits are law-abiding citizens who want to protect themselves and loved ones from violent attacks. They go through training in shooting and gun handling, and review state laws on self-defense and the proper use of deadly force. It takes about three months of KBI background checks in Kansas to get approved.

These are not the people that do the drive-by shootings or pull out a gun just because someone cut them off in traffic. Concealed carry permit holders are held to a higher standard because of their training. Please remember these are not vigilantes that are looking for someone to kill; they only want to protect their own lives and are trained not to pull a gun unless they think that a person is going to kill them or do grave bodily harm.

The two states with the highest crime statistics, California and New York, also have the most restrictive gun laws. Could it be states have higher crime rates because criminals know that their targets are most likely not armed and therefore not able to defend themselves?