2nd amendment – Page 8

7.6% of USA Adults Are Licensed to Concealed Carry Handguns

The total number of permits to concealed carry firearms in the USA is at least 19.48 million, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center report, Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2020. Add in people who legally carry in the 17 Constitutional Carry states that do not require permits in all or almost all of their state (AK, AR, AZ, ID, KS, KY, ME, MO, MS, MT, ND, NH, OK, SD, VT, WV, WY) and the number clearly becomes much larger. The CPRC report also shows that the growth rate for permits by women continues to be much greater than for men; Florida is the state that has issued the most concealed carry permits at 2.14 million; and that permit holders are supremely law-abiding. All states now allow concealed carry, although permit rules vary widely between states.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Concealed Carry Daily Prayer ]

Map showing how different states of America regulate concealed carry as of 2020

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Concealed Carry Permit Reciprocity Maps ]

‘Virtual’ Gun Rights Conference Biggest in History, Says SAF

“It was the biggest gathering of gun rights activists in the world,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), in the aftermath of the 35th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference 2020 (GRPC), held September 19-20, 2020 entirely online for the first time in history.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The 4 Basic Rules of Gun Safety ]

The event was viewed by well over 300,000 gun rights activists across the country on multiple platforms, and more than 4,100 people pre-registered for the event, which shatters all previous records, Gottlieb reported. He said it would be impossible to get an exact count of all the people who watched because several groups held “Watch Parties” attended by many people watching the program on large screens. What’s more, he said the GRPC program, which appeared as a live Facebook event, is still being viewed, either in its entirety or in segments, which may be found by visiting the SAF website or YouTube.

By semperverus
Posted on 09/23/202005/11/2025

Worldviews and Emotional Assumptions in the Gun Civil Rights Debate

Heated debates about law-abiding responsible American gun ownership civil rights tend to start and end as emotional arguments stemming from dug-in presupposed assumptions and predetermined worldviews, rather than inquiring open-minded attitudes that lead to acceptance of convincing proof.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Why Do You Carry a Gun for Self-Defense? ]

Unalienable human rights, such as the Second Amendment, are based on the steadfast recognition that there are certain nonnegotiable, self-evident givens in human nature, prior to the state’s involvement, which the state is obligated to respect. Natural human rights are meant to be inviolate; incapable of being reduced to merely legal rights or privileges.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Brief Answers for People Who Are Against the 2nd Amendment ]

A myriad of statistical analyses are already available that support how the gun civil rights position is effective in crime control, such as

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Important Judicial Decisions Regarding Self-Defense Law ]

Because the facts are readily viewable online, the following chart is an attempt to help you recognize the underlying basic emotional premises from which each side approaches the subject. Once these perspectives are identified and acknowledged, perhaps feelings will subside to the facts, helping to deescalate emotional-only arguments.

Important Judicial Decisions Regarding Self-Defense Law

The following legal decisions concern the law of self-defense. Some of the rulings are final and others are not. They’re presented here, along with salient excerpts, to be read for their excellent judicial logic about the absolute civil right of armed self-defense as established by the framers of the US Constitution.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, USA State Constitutions Providing for Armed Self-Defense ]

US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruling: Samuel Ortega v. Michelle Lujan Grisham (August 19, 2025) by US Circuit Judge Timothy Tymkovich (pdf).

This ruling says New Mexico’s 7-day waiting period law for most gun sales “is likely an unconstitutional burden on the Second Amendment rights of its citizens.”

“Cooling-off periods infringe on the Second Amendment by preventing the lawful acquisition of firearms. Cooling-off periods do not fit into any historically grounded exceptions to the right to keep and bear arms, and burden conduct within the Second Amendment’s scope.”

“Common sense dictates that the right to bear arms requires a right to acquire arms, just as the right to free press necessarily includes the right to acquire a printing press, or the right to freely practice religion necessarily rests on a right to acquire a sacred text. Legal interpretation follows that common sense.”

“As paper or a computer is a necessary predicate to the right to print, or the ability to own property is a necessary predicate of the right to just compensation for a taking—acquiring, purchasing, and possessing firearms is a necessary predicate to keeping and bearing them.”

“The burden imposed by a cooling-off period is brought into sharper focus when considered in the context of other constitutional rights. A carte blanche one-week cooling-off period to publish news stories? Unconstitutional….Temporary closures of churches during COVID-19? Unconstitutional….The Second Amendment is no different.”

“In short, regardless of paternalistic intent, waiting periods burden the right to keep and bear arms.” *