STUDY: Concealed Carry Doesn’t Cause Increase in Crime

Gun control advocates often use some version of the phrase “if it saves one life” in order to justify their ineffective proposals. A few weeks ago, the anti-gun editorial page of the Chicago Sun-Times offered a different take. Fearful that the Right to Carry was getting too much good publicity in the wake of an Illinois concealed-carry permit holder’s heroic actions, the Sun-Times editorial board felt it necessary to lecture its readers, “One brave rescue of a Cicero cop doesn’t justify concealed guns.”

First, the Right to Carry is not bad public policy. Right-to-Carry permit holders have proven themselves to be exceptionally law-abiding.

Second, instances of private individuals using firearms to defend themselves and others go well beyond the anecdotes that make the press. In his most recent analysis of the data on defensive gun uses, Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck determined that Americans use firearms for self-defense about 1 million times per year.

Third, Dr. Mark Hamill, lead author of the Mayo Clinic and Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine study, presented the findings in October at Clinical Congress 2018. “We found no relationship between the type of concealed -carry process or the general permissiveness of the process and the increased rates of homicide or other violent crime,” he concluded. The researchers looked at state crime rates in comparison to firearm laws in each and determined there was no significant link between the two.

Fourth, a second study looked at firearms in relation to mass shootings and characteristics of communities where they occur. The study conducted by Bowling Green University and the University of Toledo, found that “… the states that were more urban and anecdotally more liberal, had stronger gun laws, but, also more instances of mass shooting events.“

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