Last update: 11 June 2009.
Statistics for Bearing Arms
Statistics Listing
The following statistics relate to people legally bearing arms, whether open or concealed. Each statistic is accompanied by its source.
An Analysis Of The Arrest Rate Of Texas Concealed Handgun License Holders As Compared To The Arrest Rate Of The Entire Texas Population shows that the average Texan male over 21 is 7.7 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes of murder, rape, robbery, and assault than the average male who holds a permit for a concealed weapon. It also shows that the average Texan female over 21 is 7.5 times more likely to be arrested for the same crimes than the average female who holds such a permit. Only 26% of Texans permit holders arrested for violent crimes were convicted.
Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun indicates that there are between 2.2 and 2.5 million defensive uses of a firearm per year in the United States, or up to 6,850 per day. Of these, defenders believe that between 340,000 and 400,000 uses of a firearm saved an innocent life, whereas the largest number of deaths involving guns -- whether homicide, suicide, or accidental -- in a single year before this study was 38,323.
Florida CCW permit statistics show 581,325 active permits as of 31 May 2009. With a population of about 18,328,340 as of 2008, that means around 3% of Floridians have CCW permits. That means that in a room with 33 people, one of them is probably packing.