I recently read that concealed carry laws have really only been a recent phenomenon in our societies even though the vaunted Amendment II has been around for over 200 years. Really, concealed carry laws have only been established since about the 1980s for many States; some of those States for only a few years now.
So if there is a raging debate about crime rates and the impact thereon by legal firearm ownership it rages even more regarding the impact of concealed carry laws on crime rate.
Here are more interesting facts learned recently.
“Since 2007, the number of concealed handgun permits in the United States has soared from 4.6 million to more than 12.8 million. During that same period, murder rates have fallen from 5.6 killings per 100,000 people down to 4.2—about a 25 percent drop.”
Crime Prevention Research Center, CRIME, DETERRENCE, AND RIGHT-TO-CARRY CONCEALED HANDGUNS
Yes, you are reading that correctly! They discovered that the number of people carrying concealed has nearly tripled (300%) while murder rates dropped by 25 percent (25%). Pretty drastic, yeah? Heck yeah! How about some more examples to tie this together more resoundingly?
Chicago, Illinois. Obama’s adopted hometown. Also renowned for corruption; even before Obama. In our circles, they are famous for having some of the most strict gun control laws. They also have one of the highest gun murder rates in the nation. Indeed, regardless of restricting gun ownership so dramatically they have still managed to top the FBI’s statistical reporting for highest number of murders in the country – over 500 just in 2012. Lest you think this is a recent trend, Chicago has been a Top 3 city for murder rates since 1985.
Illinois became the very last State in the nation to finally pass a concealed carry law. It took them until 2013 to do this. So they take last place in something other than murder rates.
So back to the causation we need to prove out the CPRC’s research. Since enacting the concealed carry law in 2013, and granting the first permits in 2014, the number of robberies (closed with arrests) in Chicago declined 20%, burglary reports dropped 20% and vehicle thefts dropped 26%. By 2015, Chicago’s infamous homicide rate was at a 56 year low.
Over 2014, Illinois issued around 91,000 concealed carry permits – some 24,000 in Cook County which encompasses Chicago.
While these are not conclusive proof that concealed carry itself reduces crime rate these statistics do still prove that crime rate decrease, not increase, in areas where people are likely to carry concealed.