John R. Lott Jr., author of the groundbreaking More Guns, Less Crime, and president of the Crime Research Prevention Center, published a study last month on the rapid growth in concealed carry permits during the Obama years that revealed some interesting takeaways.
Among them, Lott found that:
Between 2007 and 2014, murder rates have fallen from 5.6 to 4.2 (preliminary estimates) per 100,000. This represents a 25% drop in the murder rate at the same time that the percentage of the adult population with permits soared by 178%. Overall violent crime also fell by 25 percent over that period of time.
The broader trend is illustrated below:
(Image Soure: Lott, John R. and Whitley, John E and Riley, Rebekah C., Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States (July 13, 2015).
Critics would likely argue that correlation does not equal causation, and violent crime has been falling for decades.
Nevertheless, Lott’s research provides interesting food for thought.
A few other particularly interesting findings, quoting from the report summary include that:
- Regression estimates show that even after accounting for the per capita number of police and people admitted to prison and demographics, the adult population with permits is significantly associated with a drop in murder and violent crime rates.
- Concealed handgun permit holders are extremely law-abiding. In Florida and Texas, permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors or felonies at one-sixth the rate that police officers are convicted.
- Some evidence suggests that permit holding by minorities is increasing more than twice as fast as for whites
Be sure to read the whole thing here.
Featured Image Source: AP/FoxNews.com.
