Data Disproves Left’s Fear Of Adhering To The Constitution On Guns

This year has seen the largest increase ever in the number of concealed handgun permit holders—more than two million, for a total of 21.52 million. That is a 48 percent increase since 2016. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of NYSRPA v. Bruen, which has a chance to further increase this total and make permitting rules more similar across states.

Six states now have more than 1 million permit holders: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Florida is the first state to have more than 2.5 million permits. Alabama has the highest rate of adults with permits, at 32.1 percent. Indiana is second, with 21.6 percent. By contrast, New Jersey and Hawaii both have rates of less than 0.1 percent.

The statistics don’t even account for the vast numbers of Americans who carry without permits. Twenty-one “constitutional carry” states no longer require people to have a permit to carry. Those who want to carry out of state may still get a permit, but many don’t bother.

Women and minorities (blacks and Asians) are driving the increase in permits. The growth in permits for women was 109 percent faster than for men, and 136 percent faster for blacks than for whites. As a result, women now make up 28.3 percent of permit holders, and black Americans make up 11 percent, close to their share of the population.

--and-- "Whenever states have eliminated “proper cause” requirements, gun-control advocates have predicted disaster, with blood-in-the-streets and irresponsible behavior by permit holders. But in state after state, concealed handgun permit holders have proved them wrong by being extremely law-abiding. Indeed, none of the right-to-carry states have even held a legislative hearing, let alone held a vote, to move back to requiring “proper cause.”

Those same fears were raised again and again during Wednesday’s oral arguments. Justice Stephen Breyer raised fears such as: “People of good moral character who start drinking a lot and who may be there for a football game or — or some kind of soccer game can get pretty angry at each other. And if they each have a concealed weapon, who knows?”

So many of these kinds of claims by gun control advocates are about things that might go wrong, but we don’t need to guess what happens. The data shows that this fear is unfounded.

For example, in Florida and Texas, permit holders are convicted of firearms-related violations at one-twelfth of the rate at which police officers are convicted. In the 19 states, where the revocation rate for permits for any reason is available, the average rate is one-tenth of 1 percent, with the most common reasons including a person moving or dying or simply forgetting to have his permit with him while carrying.

A federal court already forced Illinois to become a right-to-carry state, but Illinois responded by making it as difficult as possible to get a permit. While almost 22 percent of adults have permits in neighboring Indiana, the percentage stands at only 4 percent in Illinois. There’s a simple reason: obtaining a five-year permit costs more than $400 in Illinois and only $12.95 in Indiana.

Why do people keep thinking that gun control is about crime?
It is about control and always has been.
The first gun control laws were to protect the KKK and other such hoodlums from armed black. NYC’s Sullivan act was meant to protect Irish gangsters from armed shopkeepers.
Gun control has never been about crime. It is about controlling the citizenry.

Indeed. The current anti-gun push is led by people who are currently hand-wringing about how much they can increase society’s tolerance of crime, framing crime as “part of the urban experience”, trying to decrease incarceration rates by simply reducing incarceration period. (See recent FR thread.)

Progressive axiom: crime isn’t a thing.

To Progressives, the only “crime” is hindering The Revolution (hence prosecution of Rittenhouse, Jan 6 protestors, etc). They’re disinterested in disarming criminals per se, because they don’t see criminals as, well, criminals. The only “criminals” they want disarmed are those who push back against real criminals - to Progressives, threats/theft/assault/violence/rape/murder itself really isn’t a thing unless it’s against a “party member”, so fighting back is viewed as the crime, and preparing to do so effectively amounts to premeditation with contraband.

Progressives suffer cognitive dissonance, with consequence of “disarm everyone”.

I haven’t seen many, maybe 8 or 10 since the open carry law went into effect, and only 2 or 3 of those were since constitutional carry went into effect Sept 1. Most people, including myself prefer to carry concealed. That’s why I always have my shirt tail out...Just saw a guy in Academy carrying 2 or 3 days ago, first one in 5 or 6 weeks.

And so far, Texas hasn’t turned into the wild west all over again yet. At least not in my part of Texas...

Of course, if you want the truth, the “wild wild west” wasn’t actually all that wild. Not many people were really all that willing to face another person 30 feet away witha gun on his belt. Knowing you have a 50% chance of being carried away on a board is a deterrent...

TV and movies make it look a lot different than it really was, watch Gunsmoke and a few western movies for 3 weeks and you’d think there were shootouts 4 times a day...it jst didn’t happen, thats a glorified fantasy world invented by hollyweird to keep you from walking out of the theater bcause the movie is so stinking BORING...

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