The impact of Concealed Handgun Permit fees and training requirements on the type of people who get permits

Texas provides unique information on the race of permit holders as well having large changes in both the permit fees and training requirements. On September 1, 2013, Texas reduced the training requirement to obtain a permit from ten hours to four hours and eliminated the training requirement for renewing the permit. On September 1, 2017, the fee was reduced from $140 to $40. The question is: do higher costs of getting a permit differentially impact blacks and other minorities? The answer looks clearly yes. This has implications for laws such as Constitutional Carry, which could then help blacks and other minorities to protect themselves and their families.

The graphs show a common pattern: the percent of concealed handgun permits held by blacks and non-whites were falling before the training requirement was reduced in 2013. And reducing the costs of training and fees appears to have turned that around and increased blacks and minorities share of the permits. Blacks share of permits fell to 9.8% in 2013 and then rose to 10.4% in 2019. While permits have increased dramatically from 691,475 in 2013 to 1,416,698 in 2019, permits for blacks and non-whites were growing at a faster rate than for whites.

All the data here is from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

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