Great theory... common sense etc... except it's entirely incorrect...
The peak of violent crime in the country was the mid to late 90s. Not coincidentally, this is when the rapid growth in concealed carry also began.
... And since the peak between 1994 and 1997, violent crime, and crime with firearms, have fallen by about 50%... While the number of people legally carrying firearms have increased by over 700% (and total firearms ownership has increased by somewhere around 200 million according to production and import records).
*** An Aside: those 200 million new and imported guns sold in the U.S. in the last 20 or so years (18 million just in 2015 alone, 14 million new manufactured, and 4 million imported)?
About 1/8 of them have been some variant of the AR15 or AR10... you know, the scary black rifle people keep wanting to ban?
Semi-official estimates are only about 10-15 million AR15s... but that's because there are now literally hundreds of manufacturers of the rifle if not thousands, and most of them call it something else, or sell it in a slight variant, or different chambering, etc... so it's technically not an AR15... but for all practical purposes it is.
It's not some kind of strange and powerful "weapon of war"... it's just another rifle, like any other... in fact less powerful than most. It just happens to be black and scary looking to some...
.... and these days, most people who own guns, seem to own one, or two or more... They're like legos... mix and match, and have fun.
It's by far the most commonly sold, and likely the second most commonly owned (behind the remington 700) centerfire rifle in the country... and the second most common semi-auto rifle behind the Ruger 10-22 ***
As of today, 29 states have "shall issue" carry licensing. That means anyone who can legally own firearms, and meet the basic standards those states require, can get a permit to carry.
... and millions of people have done so...
Before the carry boom, 16 states didn't allow carry at all, and 25 had very restrictive permits, with less than 2 million legally carrying concealed nationwide.
As of today, there are already almost 15 million people legally carrying concealed firearms in this country (12.8 million at the beginning of 2015, and an expected 2 million more since then, but no 2015/16 numbers are available yet)...
... and that doesn't include all the people in the 11 states that now don't require any permit whatsoever, to carry a firearm concealed (and there will likely be 2 or 3 more of those states by the end of the year).
That's 40 states, where any adult that meets the standards and can legally own firearms, can carry them.... and only 10 where they cant...
... Actually... all of those 10 states technically have a permit process... but it usually requires a big "campaign donation" or a good friend in the government, in order to get one... but technically, all 50 states allow concealed carry now, with or without permit.
...and yet... no increase in accidental or criminal shootings... in fact they fell by half.
...Well... except in a couple of those 10 gun control states, where they didn't fall nearly as much... like Illinois... but hey...
There are about 215 million adults 21 or over, and without a felony conviction... there are about 15 million CCW holders, and some number of carriers in those 11 states with constitutional carry... most likely a couple million, given most of them are heavy gun owner states...
... So... on any given day, basically, at least 7% or so of adults may be legally carrying a gun.
Given that very few of those, are in the 10 states with restrictive gun control... which together have a population of about 105 million...
... that actually means, more like at least 12% of the eligible adult population in the shall issue and constitutional carry states... probably more like 15%.
So... 1 out of every 14 or so at the absolute minimum, and maybe as much as 1 out of 6 adults may be legally carrying, in areas where carry is not restricted... on any given day...
... And yet, violent crime, crime with firearms, and accidental shootings, have all fallen by around 50% since the mid 90s...
Funny that....
Too bad about that "common sense" theory though...
