The New York Sun: More Americans Hold Concealed Carry Permits Than Ever Before
The New York Sun has an article about our newest report on concealed handgun permits.
A record number of Americans either hold or have applied for permits to carry concealed weapons in public in the United States in 2022, according to a new report, a number that has increased more than seven-fold since 1999.
The annual Concealed Handgun Permit Report, issued by the pro-Second Amendment Crime Prevention Research Center, found that the number of permits issued increased at a rate of 2.3 percent last year. According to the report, at least two percent of the population holds a concealed carry permit in 45 of 50 states.
Some 17 states have issued licenses to at least five percent of their respective populations. In Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, and Iowa, that figure is at least 15 percent. In Wisconsin, the number of concealed carry permits increased to nearly 329,000 in 2017 from under 40,000 in 2011. As of October, 2022, the number is 468,000.
Nationwide, around 22 million Americans now hold concealed carry permits. This comes amid rising crime rates, and Second Amendment rights advocates’ recent victories at the Supreme Court and in state legislatures.
States that track gender and race of permit applicants show a disproportionate increase in the number of women and minorities applying for permits. Almost 30 percent of applicants in the 15 states that track gender were women, according to the report, . . . [MORE]
