Research into concealed carry...an extensive look...

[2aguy]

I posted this somewhere in another thread but on it's own it deserves to be looked at, especially since the main argument of the anti-gunners is that allowing private, law abiding citizens to carry guns for self defense leads to more gun murder and gun crime...this extensive look at all the research shows that this is simply not true...the article also gives links to the academic research on the topic...

The Effects of Concealed Carry and the Research of John Lott and Others -- A Look At Both Sides

Conclusion: The entire weight of scholarly consensus is that right-to-carry laws, on balance, do no harm -- and such laws may save lives and reduce violent crime.

Out of a total of 41 academic researchers and reviewers who wrote papers on the issue, only one or two (Dezhbaksh and, to be generous, Rubin) maintain that they've found specific evidence of any significant detrimental effect from concealed carry laws. This detrimental effect for robberies, offset by a small decrease in homicides, is contradicted by others, and especially by Carlisle Moody. Of the remaining 39 researchers, 20 believe concealed-carry laws reduce crime, and 19 don't.

In summary, then, the results of the known research seem quite clear.

If concealed carry were to cause a limited increase in any one category of violent crime, the overall effect might still be considered positive, ifsuch laws caused a sufficient decrease in other categories. However, there's no credible, substantial evidence to suggest that concealed carry laws do any significant harm in any category of violent crime -- or in accidental gun deaths either. According to about half of academic researchers, such laws have positive effects on society.

License-to-carry laws may reduce the overall number of homicides, rapes, and serious assaults. In addition, evidence from Utah suggests that since citizens voluntarily receive additional firearms safety training in order to get permits, such laws that also contain safety training provisions may reduce the number of accidental firearms deaths as well.

 

[Wildman]

thank you very much for this very important article.