After crunching through the 2000 Census and 2003 Census estimates, the numbers in Chris Bird's Fourth Edition "The Concealed Handgun Manual", some official sources online which are a little more current, and filling in a few gaps from a 1998 CCRKBA report, the winners are:Edit: Welcome to new readers coming in via Instapundit (and thanks to Mike for suggesting I edit this post). If you liked this post, you may also find these older posts interesting:
Percent of Adults with a License to Carry in each Shall Issue State
7.45% South Dakota
6.79% Indiana
6.76% Pennsylvania
5.23% Connecticut
5.12% Washington
4.34% Idaho
4.10% Utah
3.86% Oregon
3.45% Tennessee
3.15% Alabama
2.72% Florida
2.71% Kentucky
2.67% Wyoming
2.41% Maine
2.18% Arkansas
2.11% Virginia
1.94% West Virginia
1.76% Arizona
1.75% Oklahoma
1.70% Montana
1.70% Michigan
1.62% Texas
1.39% South Carolina
1.34% North Dakota
1.00% North Carolina
0.86% Mississippi
0.62% Louisiana
0.58% Nevada
0.45% Minnesota
0.36% Missouri
0.33% Ohio
0.20% Colorado
0.17% New Mexico <-- Slight correction 12/22/04, per Ken Grubb
Honorable mentions go to Georgia and New Hampshire. These are "old wave" Shall Issue states--IOW, pre Florida. Because issuance is scattered among many local agencies, no one in either Georgia or New Hampshire is collecting statewide numbers on how many folks are packing. Seems reasonable to place 'em somewhere between the two statistical extremes among the other "old wave" states (South and North Dakota). However, if I were a bettin' man I'd put 'em near the top, and probably above Washington.
Total licensees among the Shall Issue states (excluding Georgia and New
Hampshire):
3,079,246
Total population living in True Right To Carry states (Alaska and Vermont):
1,267,925 (0.44 percent)
Total population living in Shall Issue states:
185,039,207 (63.75 percent)
Total population living in May Issue states:
81,350,620 (28.03 percent)
Total population living in No Issue states:
22,588,641 (7.78 percent)
Ken Grubb
Bellevue, WA
Also, I'd like to draw your attention to The Shooter's Bar(SM), my online list of pro-RKBA attorneys. I hope you enjoy your time here and stop back again.
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21 comments:
Wonder where CA falls - is it a "May" or "Shall" issue state. Given that there are, what, like 6 gun permits in LA County which represents what percentage of the state population - might as well knock that into the "Will not" issue category. Furthermore, the hoops one has to jump through living in Orange County makes my head spin.
Net net net, CA = a joke.
On the OH-CCW list, there was a gripe the other day about too few people getting licensed. Concealed-carry is new here this year - open carry's been legal forever, as far as I know.
The concern was that lawmakers might take the slow uptake as a sign that they wasted their time - if only a few thousand people get the permit, then why did they bother making them available?
But that's the whole point of concealed-carry - you can't tell who's carrying! Even those who choose not to carry are protected (to some degree) by the knowledge that a criminal can't know who's carrying and who's not.
While I hope to see Ohio's percentage grow, I don't see the low adoption rate as particularly meaningful.
California is "may issue." In other words, it's up to the discretion of the local issuing authority if you get a CCW or not.
For more info on the sad state of affairs in CA, check out Jim March's Equal Rights for CCW page at http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/.
Alabama "pistol" permits are issued by each county's sheriff's department. I'm not really sure if we would be considered a "shall issue" state.
I thought Georgia had a state permit.
chuck over at redneckin
I wonder if the numbers for Florida and Utah include the non-resident CCW's. I live in Colorado but got my CCW in Florida because of the reciprocity issues.
Brass
Has anyone seen an attempt to correlate these stats with crime rates, especially violent crime? Just curious myself.
Besides Ohio's permit system being only 8 months old (it went into effect in April of this year) it is also one of the most restrictive of the shall issue states. Because of the requirement to be fingerprinted, have background checks, and the fact that you aren't really allowed to carry anywhere, people have figured "why bother go through all the hassle?" Since concealed carry is banned in all public buildings, churches and daycare centers, and all private businesses can ban them, about the only place you can carry concealed is outside. You aren't even permited to carry concealed in your own car. You must have the gun "holstered and in plain sight" whatever that means. One genleman was already arrested when a police officer pulled him over, and when the man told the officer that he had a firearm on him (as required by Ohio law) the officer told him to put up his hands. When he raised his arms, his jacket fell over his previously visible gun, and the officer arrested him for having a concealed gun in a vehicle. There was also the case of a convenience store owner who's name was printed in the paper for having a concealed carry permit. (Also allowed by Ohio law.) A couple of days after his name was printed, a couple of thugs came into his store to rob him. But instead of asking him for the money, they just immediately shot him. It has been questioned if the fact that this victim's name was printed in the paper had him killed. Until many of the restrictions are removed, more people won't be getting a permit.
Don't know if things have changed in Nevada but permit records are stored--in paper form--at each county's sheriff's office. Also, you do not need a permit to store a loaded weapon in your car.
That might account for Nevada's low percentage rate.
The case in Connecticut is misleading also. While permits are "shall issue", residents must first get a license in their home county (or city), then they can get one good statewide virtually automatically. One must have a permit to transport a handgun, so everyone who has a handgun must have a permit, unlike the situation in Texas or Arizona, where millions of people have and use handguns legally without carrying them.
-Paul
A permit in CO costs about $250, and includes training classes, fingerprints, pictures, etc. Low demand will doubtless be used to argue for abolition in 2005.
It would be interesting to plot this data with crime statistics and compare these states to no carry states. My hunch is that crime is lowest in the states with the highest percentage of licensed to carry adults.
Last check, the VIOLENT crime rate in shall issue states (after the initial year or so) decreases in propotion to the number of licenses, twice as fast for violent crime against women and licenses to women.
Non-violent property crime may increase somewhat, giving a strong hint that violent criminals, especially robbers, switch to property theft.
Permits in Connecticut are not required when transporting to or from the range, home, business, gunshop. If someone has a permit from Connecticut, it's a Concealed Carry permit.
Ohio will only get better if Ohioans push to get a better law. The best way to do that is to go to the Ohioans For Concealed Carry website and become a member today. http://www.OhioCCW.org
Power comes in numbers, and efforts to reform legislation require funding.
Nice site, Dave! FYI, there's a discussion about your CCW statistics at THR here:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=116874
Thanks, AAMOF I posted in that thread on THR.
Hmmmm...Interpolating from your statistics it would seem that PA has the most permits issued. Since SD has about 20 people and Illinois is smaller in population than PA.
PA is truly the state to live in if you are a gun owner, I am so glad I moved here from Noo Yawk.
NY is a get on your knees and maybe you will get a carry permit state.
Now if all this snow would melt so I can get to the range to shoot.......
For those with questions about what concealed carry laws do to violent crime stats....
They reduce them. Period.
I just stumbled across this blog and figured that I would add this.
to those who had questions about the correlation to violent crimes, here are the 2004 statistics from the census bureau violent crime ranking
7.45% South Dakota ~46th
6.79% Indiana ~29th
6.76% Pennsylvania ~23rd
5.23% Connecticut ~34th
5.12% Washington ~27th
4.34% Idaho ~41st
4.10% Utah ~43rd
3.86% Oregon ~31st
3.45% Tennessee ~4th
3.15% Alabama ~22nd
2.72% Florida ~2nd
2.71% Kentucky ~41st
2.67% Wyoming ~44th
2.41% Maine ~29th
2.18% Arkansas ~15th
2.11% Virginia ~35th
1.94% West Virginia ~36th
1.76% Arizona ~13th
1.75% Oklahoma ~14th
1.70% Montana ~18th
1.70% Michigan ~41st
1.62% Texas ~12th
1.39% South Carolina ~1st
1.34% North Dakota ~50th
1.00% North Carolina ~20th
0.86% Mississippi ~49th
0.62% Louisiana ~11th
0.58% Nevada ~8th
0.45% Minnesota ~6th
0.36% Missouri ~3rd
0.33% Ohio ~28th
0.20% Colorado ~25th
0.17% New Mexico ~5th
as for Georgia and New Hampshire
19th and 47th respectively.
the main idea gathered from this data isn't so much that CCWs lower the crime rate, as it is the laws regarding the use of firearms. If a criminal knows that you can kill him and walk he will be less likely to tempt his luck.
I would like to know where you got these stats?
The source for the stats is in the first paragraph of what I quoted.
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