Monday letters: SC concealed weapons training course is unnecessary

I read with amusement the May 11 story (“No safety course to tote hidden weapons?”) about how irresponsible our Legislature is for trying to eliminate concealed weapon permits.

Do people realize that criminals carry guns without getting training?

Do people realize that a number of states have already done away with their carry permits? Yet we aren’t hearing news stories every other day about people without permits being unsafe or having negligent discharges.

And do people realize how little help an eight-hour class is? When I took the class years ago, I had two people on my left at the range who could not keep their fingers off the trigger. Yet they passed. And I haven’t seen either of them in the newspaper because of unsafe gun handling.

The right to defend our own lives and the lives of those we are responsible for is only one of a number of rights given to us as humans. But it was considered so important by the Founders that they placed it second among the list of rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights.

I say it is high time we give the right of self-defense the same importance we give the rest.

If we can trust a citizen to vote for presidents and congressmen who send our military carrying guns wherever they are needed, we can surely trust a citizen to carry a gun.

Columbia

This story was originally published June 14, 2015 at 10:00 PM.