Myth: Concealed carry doesn’t prevent crimes
Fact: News reports tell many stories of armed civilians preventing mass murder in public. A few selected at random include:
- A citizen with a gun stopped a knife-wielding man as he began stabbing people in a Salt Lake City store.
- Two men retrieved firearms from their cars and stopped a mass murder at the Appalachian School of Law.
- Citizen takes out shooter while police were penned down in Early, Texas.
- Citizen stops apartment shoot-up in Oklahoma City.
Myth: Concealed carry laws increase crime
Fact: Forty two states, comprising the majority of the American population, are “right-to-carry” states – thirty eight are “shall issue” states where anyone without a criminal record will be issued a permit, and four states require no permit. In 1988 there were only 10 “right-to-carry”. 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). Eight states are “may issue” states where it is nearly impossible to obtain a CCW permit.
Fact: Gun homicides were 10% higher in states with restrictive CCW laws, according to a study spanning 1980-2009
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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,
3 and remains below the national average (as of the last reporting period, 2005).
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 second.
4 Assaults fell 250% faster in the second year.
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Fact: More to the point, crime is significantly higher in states without right-to-carry laws.
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Type of Crime % Higher in
Restrictive States
Robbery 105%
Murder 86%
Assault 82%
Violent Crime 81%
Auto Theft 60%
Rape 25%
Fact: States that disallow concealed carry have violent crime rates 11% higher than national averages.
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Fact: Deaths and injuries from mass public shootings fall dramatically after right-to-carry concealed handgun laws are enacted. Between 1977 and 1995,
8 the average death rate from mass shootings plummeted by up to 91% after such laws went into effect, and injuries dropped by over 80%.
9
Myth: Concealed carry permit holders shoot police
Fact: The Violence Police Center started listing instances of CCW holders shooting police.
10 From May 2007 through November 2009 (2.5 years) they recorded nine police deaths, three in one mass killing by a white supremacist using an AK-47 rifle. Of the nine, five have yet to have a trial or conviction.
Myth: People with concealed weapons permits will commit crimes
State 11 Permits issued Revoked permits % Revoked Violent Crime Rate Change 12
Florida 1,327,321
13 4,129 0.3% -30.5%
Virginia 50,000
14 0 0.0% -21.9%
Arizona 63,000
15 50 0.9% -28.7%
North Carolina 59,597
16 1,274 1.2% -26.4%
Minnesota 46,636
17 12 0.03% 8.0%
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Michigan 155,000
19 2,178 0.1% 1.4%
Fact: The results for the first 30 states that passed “shall-issue” laws for concealed carry permits are similar.
Fact: In Texas, citizens with concealed carry permits are 14 times less likely to commit a crime. They are also five times less likely to commit a violent crime.
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Fact: People with concealed carry permits are:
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- 5.7 times less likely to be arrested for violent offenses than the general public
- 13.5 times less likely to be arrested for non-violent offenses than the general public
Fact: Even gun control organizations agree it is a non-problem, as in Texas – “because there haven’t been Wild West shootouts in the streets”.
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Fact: Of 14,000 CCW licensees in Oregon, only 4 (0.03%) were convicted of the criminal (not necessarily violent) use or possession of a firearm.
Fact: “I’m detecting that I’m eating a lot of crow on this issue … I think that says something, that we’ve gotten to this point in the year and in the third largest city in America there has not been a single charge against anyone that had anything to do with a concealed handgun.”
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Fact: In Florida, a state that has allowed concealed carry since late 1987, you are twice as likely to be attacked by an alligator as by a person with a concealed carry permit.
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Myth: 460 people have been killed by CCW permit holders
Fact: The “study” by gun control group Violence Policy Center covers a six year span, meaning about 76 shootings of all types, including justifiable homicides.
Fact: As of 2001, there are over 11,000,000 CCW holders, meaning the worst case kill rate (justifiable or not) is 0.004% of all CCW holders.
Myth: Concealed guns in bars will cause violence
Fact: In Virginia, in the first year where CCW holders were allowed to, the number of major crimes involving firearms at bars and restaurants statewide declined 5.2% The crimes that occurred during the law’s first year were relatively minor.
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from my link above- for the leftist's who need to see it.