Fact: Forty states1 , comprising the majority of the American population, are “right-to-carry” states. Statistics show that in these states the crime rate fell (or did not rise) after the right-to-carry law became active (as of July, 2006). Nine states deny or restrict the right to carry.
Fact: Crime rates involving gun owners with carry permits have consistently been about 0.02% of all carry permit holders since Florida’s right-to-carry law started in 1988.2
Fact: After passing their concealed carry law, Florida’s homicide rate fell from 36% above the national average to 4% below, and remains below the national average (as of the last reporting period, 2005).3
Fact: In Texas, murder rates fell 50% faster than the national average in the year after their concealed carry law passed. Rape rates fell 93% faster in the first year after enactment, and 500% faster in the second153. Assaults fell 250% faster in the second year.4
Fact: More to the point, crime is significantly higher in states without right-to-carry laws5:
Fact: States that disallow concealed carry have violent crime rates 11% higher than national averages.6
Fact: Deaths and injuries from mass public shootings fall dramatically after right-to-carry concealed handgun laws are enacted. Between 1977 and 19977, the average death rate from mass shootings plummeted by up to 91% after such laws went into effect, and injuries dropped by over 80%. 8
This is an excerpt from “Gun Facts” by Guy Smith, available free from http://www.gunfacts.info
- At publication time two more states, Kansas and Nebraska, have pass shall-issue legislation, but insufficient data was available to determine how the change has impacted crime rates. ↩
- Florida Department of Justice, 1998 ↩
- Cramer C and Kopel D. Shall issue: the new wave of concealed handgun permit laws. Golden CO: Independence Institute Issue Paper. October 17, 1994 ↩
- Bureau of Justice Statistics, online database, reviewing Texas and U.S. violent crime from 1995-2001. ↩
- John Lott, David Mustard: This study involved county level crime statistics from all 3,054 counties in the U.S.,
from 1977 through 1992. During this time ten states adopted right-to-carry laws. It is estimated that if all states had adopted right-to-carry laws, in 1992 the US would have avoided 1,400 murders, 4,200 rapes, 12,000 robberies,
60,000 aggravated assaults – and saved over $5,000,000,000 in victim expenses. ↩ - FBI, Uniform Crime Reports, 2004 - excludes Hawaii and Rhode Island - small populations and geographic isolation create other determinants to violent crime ↩
- Federal legislation created a nation “gun-free schools” policy, effective in 1996. Some criminologists maintain this created a new dynamic, encouraging mass murder on campus. Thus after 1995 it is increasing difficult to make comparisons based on the effects of CCWs and mass shootings. ↩
- “Multiple Victim Public Shootings, Bombings, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handgun Laws: Contrasting Private and Public Law Enforcement”, John Lott and William Landes, Law School of the University of Chicago, Law & Economics Working Paper No. 73 ↩
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