Dai 1

Jordan Dai Instructor: Malcolm Campbell English 1103 Tuesday, September 11th Topic Proposal: Insert an engaging Title here or pose one main Inquiry Question Introduction/Overview For my topic proposal, I have taken an interest in the recent laws pertaining to the right to conceal a firearm on your person. I am sure almost everyone has heard of the recent changes in citizen rights to purchase and conceal a firearm on your person as recently as July, 2011. These new laws affect everyone, from students to teachers to law enforcement to the average person walking down the street. As of July 11th, 2011, 49 of the 50 states have passed and currently have concealed carry laws in place. This is a growing issue and carries relevance to everyone because you now have the right to carry a weapon whenever you want, unless posted that the building in Gun free. You also now never know who is carrying a concealed weapon. In preparation of my topic, I have found multiple peer reviewed articles published by universities such as Yale and Harvard. Also I have searched through some Supreme Court documents that have been released as to what legal ramifications have come along with this new citizen right. The third source of information I have investigated so far are sites pertaining to different gun associations such as the Texas Concealed Handgun Association and the NRA or National Rifle Association. I have scheduled to talk to a few of my parents law enforcement friends that work at local police departments and also a secret service member.

Dai 2

I believe that this topic is highly controversial due to peoples beliefs in weather you should have the right to conceal a weapon on your person and walk around. There are 2 very distinct sides to this topic and plenty of information to support and argue either side.

Initial Inquiry Question My initial inquiry question is as follows: Is the passing of the law for concealed carry a step in the right direction for America, or will it backfire and raise crime rates and increase violent gun related behavior. My Interest in this Topic I am interested in the new concealed carry laws because I believe that this has been a question raised in court rooms around America for decades and until last year there was little to no law stating what could be done pertaining to it. I think in the next few years we will have many people come forward and state that this has only increased our violent crime rate and will fight for it to be overturned but on the other side you will have people that are convinced that this will only help keep people safe from dangerous situations and that is what really draws me in for this topic. From what I have already learned on the topic and what I have seen in the news, I realize I have a lot to learn on this topic so I am going in with an open mind and have yet to decide what position I am going to take on this paper. I am also a Criminal Justice major so this directly affects my life in the coming years if I continue to pursue a career in Criminal Justic.

Next Steps The next step I need to take to further my topic paper will be to continue to find peer and scholarly reviewed sources on the subject. To do this I will be frequenting the library and using

Dai 3

the resources available there such as their search engine and the librarians. This, along with any information I can use from the law enforcement officials that I have lined up to meet with, will only further my background on the subject and help me in the preparation and writing on this paper. I will also be using Google Scholar to find articles and will search for new paper and magazine articles on the subject. In addition, there are a few documentaries out there that I will view and decide if they have information that will provide other insight to concealed carry.