Number of Concealed Carry Permit Holders Increased Again

Opinion

Number of Concealed Carry Permit Holders Increased Again
Number of Concealed Carry Permit Holders Increased Again

Fairfax, VA – -(Ammoland.com)- Last week, economist John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center released “Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2019,” his annual report on the number of concealed carry permit holders in the U.S.

We’ll let Lott’s summary deliver the key finding:

“In 2019, the number of concealed handgun permits soared to now over 18.66 million – a 304% increase since 2007. About an 8% growth over the number of permits since 2018.”

Let that sink in. More than 18.66 million Americans hold a permit to lawfully carry a concealed firearm to protect themselves and their loved ones. That number does not include the increasing number of states in which one does NOT require a permit to legally carry a firearm.

While 7.3% of American adults hold a concealed carry permit, it is by no means a homogenous group. Some states provide permit holder data by gender and race. “Among those states, women averaged 26.5% of permit holders – a half of one percentage point increase over 2018.” The increase in female permit holders outpaced the increase in male permit holders across the same time period – and the number of African American permit holders increased faster than the number of white permit holders. Lott reports that, in Texas, the number of black permit holders has grown more than twice as quickly as the number of white permit holders. Within states that provide data by both gender and race, black female permit holders was the fastest growing population.

In fact, as Lott reports, “The rates of permit holding among American Indian, Asian, black, and white females all grew much faster than the rates for males in those racial groups.”

Besides being an increasingly diverse group, permit holders continue to prove that they are law-abiding citizens. Lott presents permit revocation rates to demonstrate. The highest revocation rate listed is 0.72% in Connecticut; only one other state (Maryland) is even above 0.5%. To be clear, that is less than one percent of permit holders and, as Lott notes;

“Most of these rates include revocations for any reason, including people moving out of the state, and for the states where the revocation rates are higher than hundredths of a percentage point are due to residency revocations.”

These findings should reinforce the fact that law-abiding gun owners are not criminals and should not be the targets of efforts to reduce crime. As we have seen time and again, focusing on the actual criminals yields results.  Efforts to demonize law-abiding gun owners will only increase as politicians get desperate for attention from a fawning media. They will ignore that crime rates have fallen, that the number of permit holders has increased, and that criminals don’t follow laws. Sounds like common sense.

Don’t anti-gun politicians all believe in common sense?

 


National Rifle Association Institute For Legislative Action (NRA-ILA)

About:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org

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tomcat

The longer the democrats talk the more people realize it is necessary for them to be able to protect themselves, even if it just against democrats.

Get Out

That’s a lot of people carrying firearms that have permits to carry, wonder how many carry without? IMOA, If the anti-gunners keep flapping their soup coolers about coming to take weapons and those that continue to pass BS laws that only make it harder for law abiding citizens to carry are going to put a lot more guns into private hands.

Get Out

@wjd, I’ll be willing to bet there are a few that carry CCW without a permit.

Wild Bill

@GO, yep, just a few … million … criminals that care nothing about the rape, robbery, or murder statutes, much less some pansy CCW regulation. And they are another reason that the RKBA shall not be infringed, along with tyrants.

joefoam

If you were to believe the anti-gun crowd the streets should be awash in blood. It appears that is not the case as the rise in gun ownership is mirrored by the decline in ‘gun violence’.

Ed

I think it’s great that more people are carrying but since “to keep and bear arms” is affirmed by the 2nd Amendment and does not fall under the confines of the 10th Amendment, why do the states have the ability to “allow” or “disallow” concealed carry?

Get Out

@ed, IMOA, they see it as a revenue source that doubles as a registration scheme too.

Wild Bill

@GO, What you have correctly observed is called violating substantive due process. We all know about procedural due process (e.g. probable cause, read your rights, access to a lawyer, arraignment, trial, jury of your peers). But there is also a right to substantive due process.
Substantive due process is the legislature passing a law for the stated and constitutional purpose. If the legislature passes a law for the stated purpose of “public safety”, but really the law is to favor one industry over another, that is a violation of substantive sure process. See Lochner v New York.

Wild Bill

@ed, They don’t! What city governments, county governments, state governments have is millions of trigger pullers to enforce their dictates.

JPM

I don’t believe that there are enough LEOs out there willing to obey any Democrat confiscation law that might get passed and take on 19 million armed individuals. All the cops in the country put together don’t add up to anywhere close to 19 million. And that doesn’t count the armed individuals who don’t have a concealed carry permit, or need one to carry concealed (as in Arizona).

Wild Bill

@JPM, First, I hope that you are right, but I would not bet on it. Second, the LEOs that do obey unconstitutional orders have the advantage of logistics, secure comms, presumption of lawfulness, chain of command, plans, military weaps, and back up from other city, county, state and federal agencies.
Your 19 million don’t even practice together. Sorry.

TheRevelator

@Oldvet and Wild Bill

Yes. I still wont comply, and any attempt is going to cost them more than they can replace in reasonable time.

The question is how many will actually form into a militia, as happened out in Utah.
As for me, Liberty or death.

Gomezaddams51

I have a couple of friends who have a CCW. I thought about getting one but it seems to me once the anti-gunners in government have your record they can come get your gun(s).

Gomezaddams51

I have voted in every election since the 90’s. Unfortunately all the liberal loons fleeing Duh Pepuls Socialist Republik of Kalifornication have turned Nevada into a liberal Democratic state.