Reply #56: Here's a good source that summarizes FBI data [View All]

[slackmaster]

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/

Anyone can look at the data and cherry-pick numbers to support any conclusion.

A meaningful analysis would compare CHANGES in crime rates before vs. after liberalized carry laws were implemented. That has been done and the conclusions are always equivocal. Basically nobody has ever proved that shall-issue laws help OR hurt. What really matters is whether or not permit holders are abusing their permitted weapons to commit crimes.

How's Texas compare?

Funny you should mention Texas. It's the only state I know of that both tracks and publishes on the Web information about conviction rates for weapons permit holders. Here's a link to the official Texas data:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/administration/crime_records/chl/convrates.htm

Keep in mind that you should compare these conviction rates for permit holders to those for the population at large. About 1% of the population of Texas now has a concealed weapons permit. If the number in the third column is less than 1%, the concealed weapons holders are less prone to that kind of crime than the general population.

Permit holders are certainly not saints, but I don't see anything in the Texas data to indicate that the issueance of concealed weapons permits has caused any crime that would not have occurred in the absence of concealed weapons permits. (And a serious conviction does result in the permit being revoked.)

Here's another interesting set of data from Texas - Demographics:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/administration/crime_records/chl/demographics.htm

Every state that issues permits has specific criteria for issuing them. If it turns out that standards are too loose, they can always be tightened. So far no state has ever had to do that.