OBJECTIVES: There has been extensive debate in the USA as to how laws regulating the carrying of concealed firearms affect crime and public safety. This study examines whether US state laws making it easier for civilians to obtain permits to carry concealed handguns in public increase defensive gun uses against violent threats and attacks in public.
METHODS: We used National Crime Victimization Survey data from 39 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the USA over a 19-year period (1986-2004) to examine whether laws making it easier for civilians to obtain concealed carry permits are linked to higher levels of defensive gun use against violence in public spaces of metropolitan areas. Bivariate χ(2) tests and multivariate logistic regression models (controlling for actor and situational characteristics) were used with 7196 public incidents to examine whether the likelihood of the victim using a gun against an attacker(s) varied based on the type of concealed carry law in the MSA at the time of the incident.
RESULTS: The prevalence of self-defensive gun use in this sample was not clearly related to the passage of permissive gun carrying laws. Although defensive gun use was more common in MSAs with permissive gun carrying laws, this difference was not consistently related in magnitude or statistical significance to the passage of those laws or the length of time they had been in effect.
CONCLUSIONS: Permissive concealed carry permit laws do not produce evident increases in self-defensive gun uses against crime in public locations.