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CCW permitees vs. nonpermittees crime rates
Posted by David Hardy · 28 August 2009 10:37 AM
Howard Nemerov runs the figures for Texas. Depending upon your standard (all convictions, violent offense convictions, homicide convictions, etc.) the only question is how much better the permit holders come off. For most measures, their rates are 1/9 to 1/10 those of nonpermittees.
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What kind of person has his temper become loose and commits murder?
I have long maintained that crazy argument is the result of projection by liberals who are mentally unstable. They assume that because they are so unhinged that they would commit murder if they had a weapon that the rest of us are also insane.
The fact that a portion of the population that has no previous criminal record, is convicted of crimes at a much lower rate than the general population, which includes all the nastiest criminals in the state, is not surprising. A somewhat more interesting comparison would be between the population that doesn't have a CCW permit, but could get one, and the CCW permit holders. The fact that permit holders with no criminal record are being convicted of murder at one third the rate of the general population, including all the worst criminals, is kind of worrying. An even more interesting statistic would be the rate the permit holders are committing crimes compared to what they would have been if they didn't have CCW permits. But even that wouldn't be an interesting statistic by itself. I expect that if you let people carry guns, there will be more cases of people loosing their temper and committing murders. But that has to be balanced against the lives that are saved by permit holders. I'd rather it be legal and take the tiny risk that a permit holder will loose his temper, in exchange for the opportunity to defend myself against other threats.