Concealed Carry Gun Permit Requests Going Up
Typically, the number of requests for gun permits rises when people believe it might soon become more difficult to obtain a gun.
This happens, for example, when a gun control advocate is elected to a position of power or when a mass shooting occurs and there is concern that gun control legislation might have a better chance of passing.
But now, even with a Republican in the White House and Republican majorities in both the Senate and the House, requests for concealed carry permits are growing.
According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, the number of concealed carry permits in America has risen to more than 15 million in the past year. There were 14.5 million people with concealed carry permits in July 2016, but that number rose to 15.7 million by May 2017.
The states showing the biggest increases in concealed carry permits are Arizona, Florida Michigan and Texas.
Now, I don’t want to compare apples to oranges here. Gun permits are different from concealed carry permits. The latter indicates that the person already owns a gun, so that’s different from suddenly feeling the need to own one.
But there still must be a reason why concealed carry permit requests are rising. Actually, it looks like there are at least two reasons.
For one, more states are granting these permits than before. And people are taking advantage of that. In contrast, states such as California and New York are making it more difficult to obtain these permits.
More interesting is the fact that a greater number of women are requesting concealed carry permits. In fact, between 2012 and 2016, the growth rate for women requesting these permits was twice that of the growth rate for men. Women are rightfully trying to protect themselves from becoming the victims of crime.
Several years from now, someone will conduct research that will reveal whether this trend resulted in more or fewer incidents of gun violence. I’m betting that the more responsible, law-abiding citizens there are with concealed carry permits, the fewer criminals will try to engage in shooting rampages.
I certainly hope I’m right.
Owning a weapon is what America was based upon, the ability to defend oneself against physical threats to life, liberty, and evil intentions. The Government is afraid because a person that owns a weapon is a person that can become an unknown element that can cause great and bodily harm. It is the Governments intent that its checks and balances, namely law enforcement, can handle the life and death decisions of using a weapon.
The Government, the State, County and City officials all want to control its citizens from owning a weapon(s). The problem – the Constitution prohibits the Government from relieving the citizens from possessing any firearms. All they see is the potential of someone misusing their rights to bear arms. Just because one person misused their rights doesn’t mean that everyone will misuse their rights.
I agree with Orrin, we should be allowed to carry a weapon from State to State under a CCP license. We should have a update to our CCP license every three to five years. That should keep everybody honest and above board.
Dear Frank,
I wish congress would get off their collective butts and get with the agenda we elected them to accomplish.
Among their many empty promises was to create uniformity for concealed carry across the states. Currently the rules can be different from cities and counties to say nothing of states.
We all have drivers licenses that are good where ever we go, why not our CCP licenses, too???
As for violent crimes vs. legal guns the FBI report has consistently shown for decades that in those cities and states with the strictest gun laws, have the nations highest murder and gun violence rates and THAT IS A FACT!!!!!
Your Friend,
Orrin