Person Who Carries a Concealed Firearm Discussion

Instructions:

• Read “Your Supporting Claim.” This sentence will begin your paragraph. This is located below these instructions.
• Read the “Outside Source Excerpt.” This is located below these instructions. 
• Choose a direct quotation (exact words and phrases) from the outside source excerpt below that shows concrete evidence which supports “Your Supporting Claim.”
• Write an argumentative body paragraph that has the following form:

1 Begin with “Your Supporting Claim.” Don’t change it. This is an exercise, not your personal opinion.

2 Provide specific, concrete evidence. In this exercise, the evidence will be a direct quotation from the outside source excerpt. Do not use information from elsewhere.

? Don’t forget to use a signal phrase that establishes the source’s credibility.

? Don’t forget to use a present tense reporting verb to integrate the direct quotation into your own sentence. Quotes require an introduction.

? Don’t forget that an in-text citation corresponds to the first item in the works cited entry and don’t forget to include a works cited page.

3 Explain how that evidence proves the supporting claim. Do not repeat or rephrase the supporting claim as your explanation. That is not an explanation. Explain how or why the information in the direct quotation proves the claim.

Your Supporting Claim:

• Below is the supporting claim that should begin your paragraph.
• Howell did not write this supporting claim.
• For this exercise, imagine that you wrote this supporting claim.

A person who carries a concealed firearm while having a concealed-carry permit is not more likely to commit violent crime.

Outside Source Excerpt:

The number of concealed carry handgun permits has skyrocketed since President Obama was first elected, while murder rates have fallen, according to a new report released Wednesday.

Since 2007, the number of concealed handgun permits has soared from 4.6 million to over 12.8 million, and murder rates have fallen from 5.6 killings per 100,000 people to just 4.2, about a 25 percent drop, according to the report from the Crime Prevention Research Center.

And the number of permits issued is increasing faster every year. Over 1.7 million new permits were issued last year — a 15.4 percent increase over 2013, the largest such single-year jump ever, according to the report from the center led by President John R. Lott and research director John E. Whitley.

The number of concealed carriers is likely even higher, since permits are not required in eight states.

Gun rights advocates say that the findings in the report fall in line with their personal experiences and research and directly refute the liberal argument that more guns lead to more violence.

Works Cited:

Howell, Kellan. “Murder Rates Drop as Concealed Carry Permits Soar.” The Washington Times, 14 July 2015, www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/14/murder-rates-drop-as-concealed-carry-permits-soar-/. Accessed 1 August2019.