Last year saw the largest increase ever in the number of gun permits
Read the full Crime Prevention Research Center report here.
Since President Obama’s election the number of concealed handgun permits has soared, growing from 4.6 million in 2007 to over 12.8 million this year. Among the findings in our report:
- The number of concealed handgun permits is increasing at an ever- increasing rate. Over the past year, 1.7 million additional new permits have been issued – a 15.4% increase in just one single year. This is the largest ever single-year increase in the number of concealed handgun permits.
- 5.2% of the total adult population has a permit.
- Five states now have more than 10% of their adult population with concealed handgun permits.
- In ten states, a permit is no longer required to carry in all or virtually all of the state. This is a major reason why legal carrying handguns is growing so much faster than the number of permits.
- Since 2007, permits for women has increased by 270% and for men by156%.
- Some evidence suggests that permit holding by minorities is increasing more than twice as fast as for whites.
And, owing to the fact that most, if not all, of the citizens who are willing to be fingerprinted, photographed, and jump through the necessary bureaucratic hoops in order to get those permits can be categorized as demonstrably law-abiding, further results are evident in the CPRC study:
Of course, this effect is in contrast to what we see in some urban enclaves where corrupt politicians enslave their constituency by forcing them into exchanging addictive handouts for votes — and a future of poverty and crime. It's in those enclaves where a permit to carry a means of self-protection is most needed, but least likely to be found, and where guns are most likely to be used in crime. And yet we keep hearing, "If only 'they' would embrace some 'common-sense' legislation to deal with 'illegal guns'."
Let's see, while we're outlawing the outlaws, and codifying delusion, we might want to include something about those 'drunk automobiles' too.
/fl