Are you packin’?

“Gun control” advocates are avoiding this like an ugly dog: The Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) recently released its 2019 update on concealed carry in the United States, and it’s not the kind of news the anti-self-defense crowd cares to acknowledge.

According to the CPRC, the number of people with concealed carry licenses or permits increased by “about 1.4 million.” This spike brought the total estimated number of licensed citizens to 18.66 million, a whopping 304 -percent increase over the past 12 years.

The CPRC was founded, and is now headed by, economist, author and researcher Dr. John Lott. Last month, he was one of the presenters at the annual Gun Rights Policy Conference in Phoenix.

The updated CPRC report estimates that 7.3 percent of American adults are licensed to carry. That percentage tilts upward “outside of the restrictive states of California and New York,” the report says. It’s also tough to get a permit in New Jersey and Maryland, and gun ownership has restrictions in Connecticut, Massachusetts and other Northeast states.

There are now 13 states in which more than 10 percent of adults have carry licenses and permits, according to the CPRC report. Four states — Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Texas — have more than 1 million permits in circulation and the number surpasses 2 million in Florida. The other states are Alabama, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Washington.

But the CPRC report admits that its numbers might be a bit fuzzy because 16 states now have what is generically called “constitutional carry,” meaning citizens can tote their defense hardware openly or concealed without a permit. However, there is no certain way to get an accurate number of those people now packing without paper in their wallets.

And here’s a revelation sure to choke some anti-gunners: More than 2.1 million carry permits and licenses have been issued since Donald Trump was elected president.

https://crimeresearch.org/2019/10/new-concealed-carry-report-for-2019-18-66-million-permit-holders-despite-16-constitutional-carry-states-over-1-4-million-more-than-last-year/

Women get credit

Insider Online reported a couple of weeks ago about Robyn Sandoval, the Texas mom and gun rights advocate and partner, with Julianna Crowder, in “A Girl and A Gun,” the group promoting “girls night out” gatherings of women at gun ranges around the country.

Crowder and Sandoval may be having an influence. According to the CPRC report, “In 2019, women made up 26.5% of permit holders in the 12 states that provide data by gender. Eight states had data from 2012 to 2019, and permit numbers grew 101% faster for women than for men.”

That is certainly borne out by looking at Washington concealed pistol license data. This correspondent receives monthly reports from that state’s Department of Licensing on the number of active CPLs and it is impressive. The state may lean “blue” politically, but the last report revealed that as of Oct. 1, more than 631,200 people were licensed to carry, and roughly 25 percent are women. In some counties, the ratio approaches 30 percent.

The report further says that black females in Texas “saw a 3.6 times greater percentage increase in permits than white males.”

Minorities are responsible for at least part of the surge, which demonstrates that the firearms community consists of more than just a bunch of aging white guys. According to the report, black citizens in North Carolina got permits “twice as fast as whites.” In Oklahoma, Native Americans have gotten permits at about the same rate.

The report notes, “From 2012 to 2018, in the four states that provide data by race over that time period, the number of black people with permits increased almost 20% faster than the number of whites with permits. Asians appear to be the group that has experienced the largest increase in permitted concealed carry, growing 29% faster than whites.”

Bad guys with guns

Admittedly, there are a lot of bad guys with guns in America who should not have them, which is largely why so many good guys in this country are packing heat.

Some of the bad guys are, shall we say, intelligently challenged, but there’s a story out of Great Britain that absolutely takes the award for underscoring the phrase “How stupid is that?”

Bid a belated goodbye to a young fellow identified by the Metro, a British newspaper, as 22-year-old Reece Ramsey-Johnson. Back on Sept. 8, this guy reportedly strolled up to a car filled with other fellows in what was about to become his final earthly act. Ramsey-Johnson was carrying a shotgun, so the guys in the car hastily beat feet, apparently infuriating our protagonist so badly that he slammed at the car’s window with the butt of his shotgun.

That ended badly for Ramsey-Johnson because during his furious rage, the smoothbore discharged and he took the shot square in the chest at point blank range. There will be a full hearing in January, the newspaper reported, but a preliminary hearing held last month at Southwark Coroner’s Court revealed that police have ended the investigation, and they’re not hunting some third-party assailant.

https://metro.co.uk/2019/09/27/carjacker-killed-himself-when-shotgun-went-off-as-he-tried-to-smash-window-10820446/