Yet another study confirms that [View all]
Concealed handgun permits have no impact on crime rates
http://news.tamhsc.edu/?post=concealed-handgun-permits-have-no-impact-on-crime-rates
The idea that concealed handguns lead to less crime is at the center of much firearms legislation, but the science behind that conclusion has been murky, says Phillips, an emeritus regents professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health. The results have been so inconclusive that the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 called for a new approaches to studying the issue, which is what weve done with this research.
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Phillips and his colleagues took a new approach to analyzing publicly available data for this study. Previous studies have looked primarily at crime rates before and after the passage of concealed carry legislation, Phillips team used county level data to analyze the relationship between changes in crime rates and concealed carry licensing, while controlling for differences among the four study states and changes in crime rates simply related to the passage of time.
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What we found when we drilled down to the county level was that the changes in the number of concealed handgun permits in a county had no relationship to either an increase or decrease in the county crime rate.
Hmmm, no change up or down in crime rates. No bloodbath with more concealed carry and no hero induced decline in bad guys either.
There was one correlation tho:
While crime rates did not affect concealed carry licensing, the results of the study by Phillips and his colleagues indicate that a major factor driving increases in concealed carry permits was the number of firearms retailers in a county. That indicates there may be an issue of supply and demand going on with concealed carry licensing, with suppliers generating their own demand through advertising.
Having gun dealers telling people to "be afraid, be very afraid!" tends to sell guns. Not reasonable concerns about violent crime, not a genuine need for protection, just fear.