More CCW permits equals lower murder rate

Good day all. I saw this story a few days ago and haven’t had time to dig into it. A new study indicates that increased issuance of Concealed Carry Weapon permits, commonly called CCW’s, is causing the murder rates to drop.

We all know that the Progressive Liberal Fascist Democrats take it as Gospel that allowing the average citizen to even have a gun, let alone carry it is a guarantee that we will see a huge rise in shootings. Those who actually bother to look into this know it’s a load of horse manure. Well a new study is blowing large caliber holes in that belief. Here are the details from Fox News:

A dramatic spike in the number of Americans with permits to carry concealed weapons coincides with an equally stark drop in violent crime, according to a new study, which Second Amendment advocates say makes the case that more guns can mean safer streets. The study by the Crime Prevention Research Center (.pdf file) found that 11.1 million Americans now have permits to carry concealed weapons, up from 4.5 million in 2007. The 146 percent increase has come even as both murder and violent crime rates have dropped by 22 percent.

“When you allow people to carry concealed handguns, you see changes in the behavior of criminals,” said the center’s president, John R. Lott, a Fox News contributor. “Some criminals stop committing crimes, others move on to crimes in which they don’t come into contact with victims and others actually move to areas where they have less fear of being confronted by armed victims.”

There is a reason for criminals to change their behavior, which Mr. Lott knows, but is not saying. Criminals don’t want to get shot. A criminal knows that he has less to fear from a cop with a gun then he does from a citizen with a gun. The reason is simple. Police given training in law enforcement, civil rights and other things dealing with law enforcement. Police, in the course of their duties, will draw their sidearms when there is a chance that a criminal event might be occurring.

A citizen with a CCW is not taught these things. Their training is very different. To begin with, a citizen is taught that they are NOT police officers and they are not there to stop crime. They are also taught that they should only draw their gun if they are prepared to use it, and that the only time they can use it is if their lives are at risk or the lives of others are at risk. If a citizen pulls a gun, even if he doesn’t use it, he has to justify this with the legal system. Pulling a gun and waving it around during an argument or because a waiter botches your order is a good way to go to jail and deservedly so. A person with a CCW permit is assuming an awesome responsibility and knows it. This is one reason you don’t see very many CCW holders getting hauled off to jail for doing something stupid. They know better.

Increasing gun ownership, litigation and new state laws have all contributed to the rise in concealed carry permits. In March, Illinois became the 50th state to begin issuing concealed weapons permits. But the cost and other requirements for obtaining the permits varies greatly, from South Dakota, where a permit requires $10, a background check and no training, to Illinois, where the cost of obtaining a permit comes to more than $600 when the fee and cost of training programs are taken into account.

Illinois is still making it nearly impossible for people to exercise their 2^nd Amendment rights or have the means to defend themselves against criminals. Just take a look at Chicago as an example.

Six states don’t require a permit for legal gun owners to conceal their weapons, and Lott notes those states have some of the lowest violent crime rates in the nation.

Vermont doesn’t require a permit to carry openly or concealed. New Hampshire, where I live, requires a CCW for concealed carry but no permit is required for open carry. A CCW permit costs $10 in NH and is good for 4 years. No training is required, nor are fingerprints or a photograph taken. Basically, if you haven’t lost your rights to keep and bear arms through due process, you can carry a gun.

The real measure of the deterrent effect of concealed carry permits, according to Lott, is not laws on the books, but the percentage of a given state’s population that holds the permits. In 10 states, more than 8 percent of adults hold concealed carry permits, and all are among the states with the lowest crime rates. Lott claims his group’s analysis shows that each one percentage point increase in the adult population holding permits brings a 1.4 percent drop in the murder rate.

“We found that the size of the drop [in crime] is directly related to the percentage of the population with permits,” Lott said.

That sound you just heard was Michael Bloomberg’s head going POP! Needless to say, there are people who will deny the obvious.

Tod Burke, a former police officer and a professor of criminal justice at Radford University, in Radford, Va., said he doesn’t buy the idea that gun permits are driving the reduction in crime. Burke said several factors, including smarter, “data-driven” policing and increased incarceration of violent criminals likely play a bigger role.

“I think we have to be cautious about having a causal relationship between gun permits and a decrease in crime,” Burke said. “[Lott’s] theory is one to consider, but not to the exclusion of others.”

I disagree with Professor Burke. One reason is this video.

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=951FpOIIcoo’]

This took place near the Anger Central Primary Dwelling and I knew the clerk in question. (Business relationship only) There were no police nearby, not even at the donut shop a block away. I won’t go into the matter of Mr. Cothran losing his job. He found another one in very short order.

A few months later, in a hospital parking lot a few blocks from this location, another man, sitting in his car was carjacked. When the police arrived about 10 minutes later, the driver was holding a gun at the head of the carjacker, who is now resting comfortably in prison. In both cases, no shots were fired. Where was the “Data-Driven Policing” he mentions with these two incidents? Nowhere to be found. I don’t fault the police. If they had been at these two locations at the time of the crimes, they would have moved in to stop them. But, police can’t be everywhere and as the courts have repeatedly ruled, are not responsible for your protection. They are a reactive force, not proactive.

I recall a story, possibly on 60 minutes, where they were talking to a convict. The issue was gun control I believe, although I can’t be certain. (This is anecdotal and occurred several decades ago) The interviewer asked the convict who worried him more. The armed policeman or the armed citizen? The convict didn’t hesitate. He said he was far more concerned with the armed citizen. When asked why, he said it was simple. The citizen won’t hesitate to shoot him where the police officer might.

The facts and the data have been showing more and more that more guns, in the hands of the law abiding citizen, reduces crime. Of course, this goes against everything the PLFD moonbats believe, so they will deny to their dying day, (Usually after being mugged and murdered by a criminal), that a citizen with a gun is far more dangerous then the criminal currently slicing his throat open. More guns, less crime. Works for me.

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

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