Are You Packin’?
If So, This Report Says You’ve Got Company
More than 21 million Americans are licensed to carry.
They take their personal safety seriously.
The annual report on concealed carry in the United States, published by the Crime Prevention Research Center, has some eye-opening details about the number of legally armed citizens. It also has a very plausible explanation for why the number of active permits and licenses has dropped slightly for the second year in a row.
According to the CPRC, which was founded and is run by author and researcher John Lott, nobody should be fooled into presuming people are giving up their guns. With 29 states now online with permitless (a.k.a. “Constitutional”) carry, many citizens are simply not renewing their carry document and are still legally packing. How many folks are packing hardware? Who really knows? For Second Amendment purists, that’s exactly the way things are supposed to be.
Released late last year, the report says at least 8.2% of American adults have carry permits/licenses. Leave New York and California out of the equation, and the percentage jumps to 9.8%. Stop and think about this for just a bit. Odds are pretty good that in many places, nearly one-in-ten adults within your view might be armed, and it has been this way for a few years. It’s enough to give the gang at Everytown for Gun Safety the shivers.
In 16 states, the report reveals, “more than 10% of adults have permits. Oregon has fallen slightly below 10% this year. Indiana has the highest concealed carry rate — 23.1%. Alabama is second with 20.5%, and Colorado is third with 17.7%.” The report notes Alabama has now fallen below the million mark for active carry permits, having become a Constitutional Carry state where a permit is no longer required.
Having spent the last 24-plus years working for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, I can say without fear of contradiction (from any reasonable person, that is) this is a good thing. It means increasing numbers of citizens are taking more responsibility for their own safety.
Five states now each boast more than 1 million active carry licenses. Americans are obviously taking their rights to bear arms, and defend themselves, seriously.
Five Top A Million
Right now, according to the report, five states — Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Texas — each boast more than 1 million active carry permits/licenses in circulation. Florida tops the heap with 2.46 million active licenses (I hold one as a non-resident, and it has come in handy when traveling).
The CPRC did a survey with McLaughlin & Associates in 2023, which revealed that “15.6% of general election voters carry concealed handguns.” By no small coincidence, the Second Amendment Foundation last month released results of its own survey with McLaughlin, which said the following:
76% of voters believe it is important to appoint judges to the federal courts who will “make it a priority to strictly follow the Second Amendment.” Only 15% say it is not important at all.
A majority of American voters believe President Donald Trump and a Republican majority in Congress will better protect Second Amendment rights than Democrats.
Veteran pollster Jim McLaughlin said via email, “Overwhelming majorities of voters want their political leaders in Washington to defend Second Amendment rights (77%) …and nearly two-in-three voters (63%) think President Donald Trump will make it a priority to protect and defend the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners. It is safe to say that Americans are clearly excited about the results of the November elections, and the rights of gun owners remain very important to voters.”
You Didn’t See This on TV
Who has heard arguments that the establishment media won’t report stuff that doesn’t “fit the narrative?” Here’s something at least a couple of sizes too big for the media’s attention.
More than 21 million Americans are licensed to carry. They take their personal safety seriously.
“In 2024,” the report reveals, “women made up 29.1% of permit holders in the 14 states that provide data by gender. Seven states had data from 2012 to 2023/2024, and permit numbers grew 111.9% faster for women than for men.”
Washington, where I am based, is one of those states, and data from the state Department of Licensing shows roughly 20-22% of all concealed pistol license holders are women. At last report, just under 700,000 people had active CPLs, down from a high of just over 701,000 back in October. In a politically “blue” state, this is significant. Evidently, even liberals value their own skins enough to be packing heat. One can find out about concealed carry issues at HandgunLaw.us, a handy place to quickly check gun laws if you plan to travel to another state.
It has been Insider’s experience that many people will flat out fib when asked if they own and especially carry defensive sidearms. My official position on this has always been that it is nobody’s business if you legally own or carry a gun. People who insist it is their business are typically “social justice warriors” (also known as “busy bodies”) who have appointed themselves as arbiters of what is right or wrong.
Here’s another little tidbit from the report which also doesn’t fit the narrative: “From 2015 to 2021/2023/2024, in the four states that provide data by race over that time period, the number of Asian people with permits increased 219.2% faster than the number of whites with permits. Blacks appear to be the group that has experienced the largest increase in permitted concealed carry, growing 283.9% % faster than whites.”
One thing which will come as no surprise to anybody is that the most restrictive states have the lowest percentages of their adult populations with concealed carry permits. In New York, it’s 0.93% and in neighboring New Jersey, 0.56%. In California, it’s 0.54%. Hawaii and Rhode Island each have a scant 0.20%.
Maine made the list at 0.91%, but CPRC notes Maine has permitless carry, and permits are obtained by citizens for carry in other states.
The CPRC report was prepared by Lott and his associates, Carlisle E. Moody at the College of William and Mary Department of Economics, and Rujan Wang.
Sheriff’s Warning: Break into someone’s home in Florida, you just might get plugged!
Sheriff’s Reality Check
When it comes to handing criminals a blunt dose of reality, perhaps nobody has done it better lately than Manatee County, Florida, Sheriff Rick Wells.
During a press briefing last month about the fatal shooting of a home invader by the homeowner, Sheriff Wells matter-of-factly observed, “This is the state of Florida. If you want to break into someone’s home, you should expect to be shot.”
If there were job descriptions for various criminal behaviors, the sheriff’s remark would have to appear as a warning label right at the top.
The briefing can be seen on YouTube here, and it is worth watching.
