Despite efforts from the left to restrict gun ownership on claims that it will reduce crime, the opposite is actually true, says Reason.com editor Nick Gillespie.
In a
Sunday blog post, Gillespie points out that crime rates drop in states that enact laws allowing more people to carry concealed weapons, and they drop even further as more residents of those states avail themselves of their right.
In 1987, Gillespie notes, the total crime rate was 5,550 per 100,000 people while the violent crime rate was 610 per 100,000. By 2013, those figures had dropped to 3,099 and 368.
The post quotes Grover Norquist from an
OZY article stating that 41 states have passed "concealed carry" laws since 1987, and that violent crime falls faster in those states. Arizona, Vermont, Wyoming and Alaska don't even require permits for concealed weapons, he notes.
A study by the
Crime Prevention Research Center earlier this year found that 11.1 million Americans have concealed carry permits, up from 4.5 million in 2007. During that period, murder and violent crime rates dropped 22 percent.
"When you allow people to carry concealed handguns, you see changes in the behavior of criminals," the center’s president,
John R. Lott, told Fox News. "Some criminals stop committing crimes, others move on to crimes in which they don’t come into contact with victims and others actually move to areas where they have less fear of being confronted by armed victims."
Gillespie noted that even liberal icon Eleanor Roosevelt had a New York State gun permit.
"If you find yourself in a jurisdiction that forbids law-abiding citizens from packing heat, you might ask why she could carry but you cannot," the libertarian Gillespie said. "In arming herself, Eleanor Roosevelt was ahead of the curve."
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