Actually, gun-permits are just the whisper which comes with the end of freedom. Freedom ended with the Civil War, since it ended the power of anyone to oppose the federal government; since then, it's only been a matter of time, as no government ever limits its own power voluntarily.
The police are only the expression of this, being the level at which government interacts with the citizen in an unchecked manner; you really can't appeal a police officer's decision on the street, even when they do something forbidden by law and the Constitution: if you do, they can arrest, torture (i.e. pepper-spray, nightsticks, tasers etc). or even shoot you-- even if you just demand to speak to a supervisor before complying.
As such, people have resigned themselves to putting up with police thugs who abuse them. I've even tried suing cops for abusive, unconstitutional and threatening treatment, only to be told by lawyers who say that anything less than an actual police beating or false arrest etc. is "too commonplace to be actionable."
However this is only POSSIBLE because of the desperate state we're in as far as Big Brother empowering his thugs to get away with murder.
However the right to bear arms, is far more important than having cops at ALL; when it comes to being safe from crime, I'd far rather have .357 than 911. Cops rarely STOP crimes, they just show up after the fact.
Therefore, the right to bear arms is absolute, since it's the only reasonably sure way to be able to protect yourself agianst violent crime; and under the doctrine of common law, qui destruit medium, destruit finem-- "whoever destroys the means, destroys the end;" hence, taking away the means to stop crime, destroys the right to be safe from such. As long as it's no threat to any innocent person, then the right to bear arms-- and this means CONCEALED HANDGUNS-- is absolute and inalienable.
As for criminals carrying guns? I've got a radical idea-- put the criminals in JAIL- -and KEEP them there!
But this won't happen-- because then it won't give the state the EXCUSE of "disarming citizens to stop crime--" as if some Bizarro-universe exists where CRIMINALS OBEY LAWS!
(Cue Laurel & Hardy music...)
Tyrants know full-well, that people will always choose tyranny over anarchy-- and so they do their best to PRESERVE anarchy by ENCOURAGING crime! This causes people to trade liberty for security-- and ending up with neither, as they give up their guns under the bizarro premise that criminals will do the same.
(Not that criminals even NEED guns-- gangs with LEGAL box-cutters, base-ball bats and other makeshift weapons can easily take out any unarmed citizen).