Murder rates drop as concealed carry permits soar
This report is nothing new but is a great update. While murder rates were falling almost in half in the industrialized world during the 1990's civilian gun ownership in the United States doubled.
The number of concealed carry handgun permits has skyrocketed since President Obama was first elected, while murder rates have fallen, according to a new report released Wednesday.
Since 2007, the number of concealed handgun permits has soared from 4.6 million to over 12.8 million, and murder rates have fallen from 5.6 killings per 100,000 people to just 4.2, about a 25 percent drop, according to the report from the Crime Prevention Research Center.
And the number of permits issued is increasing faster every year. Over 1.7 million new permits were issued last year — a 15.4 percent increase over 2013, the largest such single-year jump ever, according to the report from the center led by President John R. Lott and research director John E. Whitley.
The number of concealed carriers is likely even higher, since permits are not required in eight states.
In Florida and Texas permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors or felonies at one-sixth the rate that police officers are convicted, according to the report.
Data on gun sales and recent opinion polls indicate that more people are warming up to the idea of gun ownership. A 2000 Gallup Poll found that 35 percent of Americans thought that owning a gun made their home safer. By 2014 that number soared to 63 percent.
A Dec. 2014 Pew Research poll found, for the first time in more than two decades, there was more support for gun rights than gun control, with 52 percent of respondents saying it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns, while 46 percent said it was more important to control gun ownership.
NCIS background checks increased from 11.2 million to 21 million between 2007 and 2014, according to the report, and the sale of guns has skyrocketed over the last two years. About 14 million guns were sold between 2008 and 2011, while over 20 million were sold between 2012 and 2013, and about a quarter were sold to first-time buyers, Mr. Keene said.