Is Permitless Carry A Threat to Public Safety?

Currently, there are twenty-seven states in the country that have laws that allow citizens—not otherwise prohibited from possessing a firearm—to carry a handgun legally without a permit. While most of the states began adopting these laws in the mid 2000s, ten of the 27 states with such laws became permitless carry states in only the past 3 years.

—Click to see the summary of all 50 states' permit laws—

Permitless Carry And Crime—

Each time states brought up a permitless carry bill, anti-gunners warned of the catastrophic effects permitless carry would have on the public's safety. We should always pause whenever someone uses a bunch of numbers and percentages to argue their point. Not that using statistics is bad, but people can manipulate numbers to mislead. So take the following numbers how you will and decide for yourself who is manipulating the numbers to mislead.

In 2010, there were roughly 31,000 deaths in the United States in which someone used a firearm. That number gradually rose to around 40,000 by 2019. In the following 2 years, from 2019 through 2021—while leaders let the country devolve into lawlessness—the number spiked to around 49,000 deaths. Those numbers would seem to suggest more guns equal more gun deaths, and that is what we hear.

However, that doesn't paint the entire picture. Over that same 11-year period, the estimated population of the United States increased by 26 million people, from around 311 to 337 million. This is an estimate, and the number could actually be even higher depending on which number one uses to tally the illegal alien population, which is estimated at anywhere between 10 to 20 million!

Numbers Don't Lie, But People Do—

If the raw numbers of deaths involving firearms would have followed its normal curve—and not spiked from 2019 to 2021 in part because of sanctioned riots and forced covid lockdowns—the number of deaths per 100,000 people, or the likelihood of being killed by someone with a firearm was no higher than it was before permitless and concealed carry became widely accepted.

Mentioning that the murder rate going up along with the population doesn't mean I condone murder. That is just a distraction used to keep people from looking at the numbers factually rather than emotionally.

I Don't think I'm manipulating the data or taking it out of context, but you be the judge of that. Also, I will be the first to acknowledge that crime statistics are not driven by a single factor, it's more complex. But these numbers at least disprove the lies continually spread to scare people into believing that a permit program keeps criminals from carrying guns. Or that somehow, attending a state-mandated concealed carry course keeps gun owners from losing their minds and start blasting away at anyone they see.

Yeah, there are lunatics who shoot someone because they got cut off in traffic. But constitutional carry doesn't embolden these people, and a permit doesn't prevent these people from carrying a gun and acting like a maniac.

So the laws that restrict the law-abiding citizen from carrying firearms do exactly that, restrict the law-abiding, with no impact on those who don't follow the law. This is obvious on its face. When you add in that the modern social justice warrior supports cash-less bail, reduction in incarceration rates, decriminalization of drugs and “reimagined” policing—all of which keep violent criminals on the streets—it has to make you wonder what the real goal of gun control is.

Is Gun Control About Public Safety?

Could there possibly be another explanation? Perhaps frustrating the individual's right to keep and bear arms was the point all along. After all, laws only restrain those who follow them. Coming from an unimpressive cast of liars and power hungry egoists, the latter explanation seems more fitting.

Don't misunderstand. Owning and carrying a firearm come with responsibility. A responsibility, not just in safe and proper handling of the firearm, but using the firearm in a moral and legal way. For these reasons, I encourage anyone who owns a firearm to learn how to use it safely, legally, and ethically. Restricting the individual's right to possess a firearm through a complex and costly permitting program is where I draw the line.

Since the Supreme Court ruling in the Bruen case, unconstitutional gun control legislation that has no historical or public safety basis is crumbling all round the country. Like New York, New Jersey's reactionary and ultra-restrictive gun laws passed in response to the Bruen ruling, suffered a massive beat down.

Chief Judge Renee Bumb issued a preliminary injunction against the overreaching and unconstitutional New Jersey gun control law and said this:

“[W]hat the State and the Legislature-Intervenors ignore, and what their empirical evidence fails to address, is that this legislation is aimed primarily—not at those who unlawfully possess firearms—but at law-abiding, responsible citizens who satisfy detailed background and training requirements and whom the State seeks to prevent from carrying a firearm in public for self-defense.”

Yeah, she gets it.

Education is Important—

We offer many online and in-person training opportunities that cover a wide-range of topics help the responsibly armed citizen. You can access these courses individually through our store, or get access to our entire library with Guardian University. If you don't take part in our training, please consider getting some training from another reputable source.

If you live in a state with permitless carry, please consider this free resource that we put together as a free “crash course” for anyone who wants to carry without a permit and needs a place to get started with all that goes into legal and responsible gun ownership and personal protection.

What do you think? Do more gun laws make the public safer? Do you feel safer in “gun free zones”, or where you can carry a firearm and legally defend yourself? Let me know in the comment section below.