A study by Lott, Whitley and Riley that you can download here.
Since President Obama’s election the number of concealed handgun permits has soared, growing from 4.6 million in 2007 to over 12.8 million this year. Among the findings in our report:
-The number of concealed handgun permits is increasing at an ever-increasing rate. Over the past year, 1.7 million additional new permits have been issued – a 15.4% increase in just one single year. This is the largest ever single-year increase in the number of concealed handgun permits.
-5.2% of the total adult population has a permit.
-Five states now have more than 10% of their adult population with
concealed handgun permits.
-In ten states, a permit is no longer required to carry in all or virtually all of the state. This is a major reason why legal carrying handguns is growing so much faster than the number of permits.
-Since 2007, permits for women has increased by 270% and for men by
156%.
-Some evidence suggests that permit holding by minorities is increasing more than twice as fast as for whites.
-Between 2007 and 2014, murder rates have fallen from 5.6 to 4.2
(preliminary estimates) per 100,000. This represents a 25% drop in the
murder rate at the same time that the percentage of the adult population with permits soared by 178%. Overall violent crime also fell by 25 percent over that period of time.
12.8 million people with concealed carry guns in the US of A. I am going to say it again:
12.8 million people with concealed carry guns in the US of A.
A comparison: It takes the top 25 countries with most active troops in the world to reach the same numbers.
Mind blown yet? No? Now for argument’s sake let’s say that those 12.8 million have at least 100 rounds of ammunition at home for defense and practice. That comes to 1.28 billion rounds of ammunition in civilian hands.
Consider my mind officially blown.
1) You know that, that number would shoot up by another 4 or 5 million if states like CA and NY (the whole North East really) were shall issue like FL. If you applied the 5% average to CA that is 1.8 million (36 mil total), NY would be just under 1 million (19.75 mill total), 500K for NJ (9 mil tot), and 350K for MA (7 mil tot).
2) I’m suddenly reminded of a (mis attributed) quote about a rifleman behind every blade of grass.
And I’m reminded of the line uttered by John Wayne in “The Shootist” as to why he was as successful in his gunfights as he was.
“Second, I found most men aren’t willing, they bat an eye, or draw a breath before they shoot. I won’t.”
We as Americans can own and carry all the guns and ammo we want, but if we aren’t willing…….
The whole northeast? Dont forget VT started permitless carry, ME just passed permitless carry, and NH does permits for $10 and a one page piece of paper.
Maybe that was a gross generalization. But the heavily populated/urbanized states of the NE is what I meant. The population of VT IS 600K. VT, NH, ME combined is less than the population of the Boston metropolitan area (3 million vs 4.7 mil). VT is a nice place to visit but there are more more upper school kids in NYC than there are people in VT.
CT is also technically shall issue and was one of the first states to adopt a formal permit system. We have gone wayyyy downhill since.
We do know NJ is no go and NY and MA remain mixed.
[…] Miguel has the research and the numbers. […]
Being awful conservative with that 100 rounds, aren’t you?
That is what I have for my Mosin ’cause I don’t shoot it that often.
I probably have about 1600 rounds for my 9mm. and around 400 rounds for the 5.56 AR (been doing a lot of target practice lately). Need more for the 300BLK AR.
Let’s include ALL gun owners with 100 rounds X 300 million guns is 30 BILLION rounds.
And maybe more like 10 times that? 300 BILLION rounds.
I’m with Geoff, you’re a tad low on the ammo to my way of thinking… I’d bump that to an ‘average’ of 1000 rounds… I’ve got a few more than that though… 🙂
I did not do a good job on that one. I should have explained my”numbers”: Just tallying one gun per CWP holder with one 15 round mag plus two spares and practice ammo as sample.
Here is another image: 12.8 million CWP holders with a loaded handgun and a spare mag means 384 million rounds walking around at any time on the streets of the US 😀
And if anybody in Moms and CSGV reads this, they just had a stroke.
That’s enough bullets to kill every man, woman, and child in the US at least twice over, given the typical CSGV understanding of how bullets work.(“…600 magazine clips per minute…”)
The only thing wrong with your numbers is, unfortunately, a fair percentage of the concealed carry permit holders do not carry on a daily basis. They should, but a good number of them only carry when they (feel they might) need it. Which makes me sad.
I did say it was the warped CSGV view. It only takes a couple hundred people to slaughter everyone, by their numbers.
sorta ‘splains the ammo shortage