ARMED AND PROTECTED : LAWS THAT PERMIT CITIZENS WITH TRAINING TO CARRY CONCEALED HANDGUNS APPEAR TO LOWER CRIME RATE.Byline: David Kopel A quiet revolution in gun policy is spreading throughout America.Ten years ago, only a half-dozen states routinely issued permits for citizens with training to carry concealed handguns for personal protection. Today, however, 31 states comprising more than half the nation's population grant concealed-carry permits to law-abiding citizens. In the long run, this movement will prove far more significant than either the Brady Bill waiting period or the ban on certain semi-automatics. In 1987, Florida Gov. Bob Martinez signed a bill entitling any citizen who clears a fingerprint-based background check and passes gun-safety classes to receive a permit to carry a concealed handgun for protection. Since then, a steady progression of states has adopted concealed-carry laws modeled on Florida's. Has this movement made America safer or more dangerous? In research conducted for an article in the Tennessee Law Review, historian Clayton Cramer and I found that in Florida, following adoption of its concealed-carry law, the murder rate started an immediate, steady decline. Before the law, Floridians were about 36 percent more likely to be murdered than other Americans; after a few years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time Florida rate was equal to or slightly less than the national rate. As for other violent crimes, Florida was the worst state in the nation both before and after the new law. Florida's overall violent-crime rate, however, rose much more slowly since 1987 than did the national violent-crime rate. When we examined violent-crime data in California, where permit policies vary widely by county, we found that counties that issue concealed-carry permits liberally had lower violent-crime rates than counties with restrictive policies; restrictive counties had lower rates than counties with prohibitive pro·hib·i·tive also pro·hib·i·to·ry adj. 1. Prohibiting; forbidding: took prohibitive measures. 2. policies. A comprehensive study by University of Chicago law professor John Lott John Richard Lott Jr. (born May 8 1958) is a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park[1] and has held research positions at numerous institutions, including the University of Chicago, Yale University, the Wharton School at the University of and graduate student David Mustard examining crime data for 3,054 counties found that while concealed-carry reform had little effect in rural counties, in urban counties it was followed by a substantial reduction in homicide homicide (hŏm`əsīd), in law, the taking of human life. Homicides that are neither justifiable nor excusable are considered crimes. A criminal homicide committed with malice is known as murder, otherwise it is called manslaughter. and other violent crimes such as robbery. At the same time, there was a statistically significant rise in non-confrontational property crimes, such as larceny larceny, in law, the unlawful taking and carrying away of the property of another, with intent to deprive the owner of its use or to appropriate it to the use of the perpetrator or of someone else. and car theft. Apparently many criminals concluded that the risks of encountering a victim who could fight back had become too high. Lott and Mustard estimate that if all states that did not have concealed-carry laws in 1992 adopted such laws, there would be approximately 1,800 fewer murders and 3,000 fewer rapes annually. Thus the adoption or improvement of concealed-carry laws in more than a dozen states since 1992 may be one reason for the current decline in murder rates. In some respects, the concealed-carry movement has become a women's issue. In fact, about a quarter of those who apply for and receive concealed-carry permits are women. When Alaska Gov. Walter Hickel signed concealed-carry legislation in 1993, he explained that the constituents he found most compelling were ``the women who called and said they worked late and had to cross dark parking lots, and asked why couldn't they carry a concealed gun?'' Leading advocates for concealed-carry laws include female victims of crime such as Suzanna Gratia Hupp, whose parents were murdered five years ago in a mass killing in Killeen, Texas Killeen is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. As of the 2005 census estimate, the city had a total population of 100,233. It is a "principal city" of the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood metropolitan area. ; Rebecca John Rebecca John (born 15 April, 1970, Vale of Glamorgan) is a presenter and reporter for BBC Wales on British television. She read for a degree in French and German at Robinson College, Cambridge University between 1991-1993, before completing a postgraduate course in Wyatt, the founder of Safety for Women and Responsible Motherhood; and Marion Hammer, the new president of the National Rifle Association National Rifle Association (NRA) Governing organization for the sport of shooting with rifles and pistols. It was founded in Britain in 1860. The U.S. organization, formed in 1871, has a membership of some four million. Both the British and the U.S. and an activist in the Florida concealed-carry debate. Hammer once brandished her handgun to ward off a gang of would-be robbers. Typically, when state legislatures A state legislature may refer to a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. The following legislatures exist in the following political subdivisions: But within a year of passage, the issue usually drops off the media radar screen, while pro-gun-control lawmakers conclude that the law wasn't so bad after all. Why? Because everyone is a potential beneficiary of concealed-carry reform. Since criminals don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. which of their potential victims may be armed, even persons without concealed-carry permits would enjoy increased safety from any deterrent de·ter·rent adj. Tending to deter: deterrent weapons. n. 1. Something that deters: a deterrent to theft. 2. effect. Moreover, a Psychology Today study of ``good Samaritans'' who came to the aid of violent-crime victims found that 81 percent were gun owners, and many of them carried guns in their cars or on their persons. Concealed-carry permits are no panacea Some antidote or remedy that completely solves a problem. Most so-called panaceas in this industry, if they survive at all, wind up sitting alongside and working with the products they were supposed to replace. for high crime rates. But they will be an important component of an anti-crime strategy based on the right and duty of good citizens to take responsibility for public safety. MEMO: David Kopel is research director of the Independence Institute, Golden, Colo. Readers may write to him in care of the Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Washington, D.C. 20002. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (Color) Femmes Fatales: Leading advocates of conceal ed-carry laws include a number of women's groups. Daily News |
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