According to gun rights advocates, these new [constitutional carry] laws are necessary because the current permit process is simply too onerous. But that is precisely the point. It boggles the mind that anyone would want people running around with guns they have no training or experience in using. But of course, in America, the way we treat guns and gun ownership is anything but normal.
In signing the new legislation, [Indiana Governor Eric] Holcomb said he trusts citizens of the Hoosier state to “lawfully and responsibly carry a handgun” in the state. Holcomb’s trust in his fellow citizens is badly misplaced, because if he were correct, the U.S. would not have, by far, the most gun-related homicides of any developed country in the world.
But try to imagine any public official taking the same attitude toward the issuing of driver’s licenses. Would anyone consider it a good idea to let any adult legally get behind the wheel of a two-ton automobile with no training, no permitting, and no proof that they actually know how to properly drive?
And just how onerous are the old gun permitting rules, anyway?
A concealed carry permit in Ohio used to require paying a fee of at least $67, a background check, and eight hours of training—mainly focused on safety. For comparison’s sake, obtaining a license to cut hair in Ohio requires the completion of at 1,500 hours enrolled in a cosmetology school program. Unless the person cutting your hair is the modern reincarnation of Sweeney Todd, chances are pretty good that you need not worry about dying in the barber’s chair.
The argument commonly made by gun rights advocates—that only a gun provides sufficient protection from violent bad guys—is undone by the well-known fact that possessing a gun significantly increases the likelihood that the gun owner, or someone close to them, will die from gun violence.
A more pertinent and less-discussed argument is that all of us would be safer if there were fewer untrained shooters toting concealed weapons.
— Michael A. Cohen in Making It Easy to Carry a Concealed Gun Is Absolute Madness