just to toss in my
...
first I am really on neither side of gun control, but I do think that it does help to be able to carry a gun. I remember reading some story about how the crime rate in either texas or florida dropped quite significantly after citizens were allowed to carry guns (looking for the article to post)
my guess... if you are a criminal in california and walk into a Jack In The Box and hold the place up, there is a really small chance that anyone will have a gun in the restraurant and the chances of any conflict between you and getting that $20 in the register are small.
However, if you do that in Texas, my guess is 3/4 of anywhere you are going is packing a gun. You pull out a gun to hold up a store, im willing to bet that there will be 20 guns pointed in your direction.
now im not saying that this will solve anything, but its pretty much fighting fire with fire by allowing citizens to carry guns.