Conceal carry laws reduce crime

My position is that concealed weapon laws and laws in general have little effect on crime.Firearms (or any weapon) as a whole and their availability are what reduce or fail to reduce crime. Fact 1: Poor communites are where crimes are committed more oftenBy and large acts of homicide, roberies, assualts, etc. take place in communities more suspeptible to crime and gang activity. There might be the random sporatic shooting, or there may be the occasional robbery or burglary of an middle or upper class victim, but by and large you see crime is attached to poverty stricken communities.Forinstance it has been empirically proven that crime (including violent) is connected to drug related activity (possession, dealing, trafficking, etc.). More often than not this will occur in communities and among citizens who don't have access to many occupational alternatives or are caught up in the societal stigma of the "revolving door of recidivism."Having established that, we've seen from past gun bans(3)that the availability of guns have an impact on crime rates and not the laws themselves.Contention 1: The state of economics effect crime rates Europe is a great example for gun control policies.For decades Europe has had restrictive gun control policies (largely restrictive).Yet it is just in the last decade that crime rates in the country are rising (2).The link?Economic downturn. As we've all read Europe and the world have taken some pretty severe economic hits.And it has been empirically proven that bad economics means more crime.Now compare this with Switzerland.Switzerland actually has the lowest crime rate in the world.They still have relatively restrictive rights on gun ownership though (3), more restrictive than the U.S.But they also have a large stockpile of civilian firearms, as does the U.S.But where do the two countries largely differ?Economic stability.As mentioned most crime in the US is committed in poverty sticken communities.By and large upper class communities avoid the usual brute force crime (White Collar Crime still an issue).Comparing the two countries economics though, the Swiss GDP per capita is $42,000 and the US' is $46,000.This takes into account that over 42 Million Americans are on food stamps (4). We have an extremely wealthy population in this country, but it's brought down by millions of Americans dependant on our welfare system.According to Nationals affairs.com (5) though, the Swiss have "all but eliminated 'welfare dependency.'"We see the economic state of a nation has an even greater effect on crime rates than the availability of firearms do.Switzerland has for along while enjoyed a prosperous banking system and unlike many of its neighbors never had to rebuild from two World Wars. It's remained incredibley stable for decades.Contention 2: Availability of weapons is what deters crime Putting aside economics for a moment. Gun rigths and concealed weapons rights have been limited in the past but it had no effect on crime rates (1). The reason being is that the availability of guns among individuals can help determine crime rates.If you were to actually remove the firearms from the picture than this would be a different argument completely. But that's not the question, the question is whether concealed pemits reduce crime rate by 50% or more.Which leads into my next point.It would seem that the entire resolution is focusing on concealed weapon permits and not the ownership of guns as a whole.If the Government were to ban concealed weapons permits, the availability of guns through normal or illegal registration would still contiue to deter crime. There's no doubt that the risk of getting wounded would deter you from committing a crime, so in that sense firearms or any weapon as a whole would reduce crime. If you were to take away guns and replace them with knives, axes, etc. then people would be detered by that.If you gave everyone rocks and sticks it would be the same senario.As long as one group doesn't have an advantage over the other in terms of weapon capability it's irrelvent what weapon (and the laws in place) they have to protect themselves, the weapon will stll deter.Refereces (1) Cliffnotes http://www.cliffsnotes.com...(2) Crime in Europehttp://www.justlanded.com...(3)http://www.gunpolicy.org...(4) Forbes http://www.forbes.com...(5) National Affairs.comhttp://www.nationalaffairs.com...