The Last 3 Safe Spaces From America’s Gun Violence

Isaac Newton Farris Jr
6 min readApr 18

America has officially entered a dark era where its citizens are likely to be killed at an elementary or high school, a church, a bank, a college, a dance hall, a grocery store, and even a sweet 16 birthday party. But lo and behold, 3 safe spaces remain in America where citizens are guaranteed they will not be shot dead from gun violence!!!

In a little less than 3 months America will reach a new life-threatening milestone. On July 1 of this year, Florida will become the 26th state to facilitate increased gun violence by allowing its citizens to carry a concealed gun in public without a state permit or registration, making America for the first time in American history a majority constitutional carry nation. Florida is a prime example of how illogical gun laws have become in the United States, after July 1 it will be legal in Florida to carry a concealed weapon on your body that no one can see without a state permit, but after July 1 it will remain illegal in Florida to carry a weapon on your body that everyone can see.

State laws that allowed permit-less open carry and permit-less concealed carry of weapons used to be referred to as “ Vermont carry”. Because until 2011 Vermont was the only state in America that allowed permit-less open and concealed gun carry. After the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in 2008 that the American Constitution guarantees every American citizen a personal right to own a gun, in 2011 Wyoming became the second state to enact permit-less carry. Among the 24 states that followed Wyoming by enacting their own permit-less carry, the 2022 permit-less law passed in Indiana made national headlines. Because just two weeks after it became law gun violence reaped havoc when a deadly mass shooting occurred at a mall in an Indianapolis suburb, where a gunman killed three and wounded two more before being shot dead by a bystander who also carried a gun.

Currently, in the United States, there are 8 states requiring permits for open and concealed carry. Another 3 states, plus Washington D.C., require permits for concealed carry and prohibit the open carry of most guns. 13 states allow the open carry of guns without a…

Isaac Newton Farris Jr

Isaac Newton Farris Jr. is the nephew of Martin Luther King, Jr. and serves as Senior Fellow at the King Center.