What happens when civilians have the freedom to carry firearms in public? Well, the jury is still deliberating, but the evidence doesn’t show a correlation with an increase in violent crime.
We recently updated our Concealed Carry Crime Stats analysis, and here are a few highlights from that report:
- The U.S. violent crime rate peaked at 758.1 incidents per 100,000 in 1991, when only ten states had right-to-carry legislation. The violent crime rate declined to 359.1 per 100,000 in 2024 when 41 states implemented right-to-carry legislation.
- Of the 12 states that passed permitless carry laws between 2019 and 2022, 11 had lower crime rates in 2024 than they did in 2019.
- The average violent crime rate among permitless carry states was 311.9 per 100,000 in 2024. The collective average violent crime rate in permit-required states was 335.1 per 100,000.
We covered a lot more in the full report. Please read and share! It’s linked here.
