8.3% of USA Adults Are Licensed to Concealed Carry Handguns

During the Coronavirus pandemic, the number of concealed handgun permits soared to over 21.52 million—a 48% increase since 2016, according to the Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2021 report from the Crime Prevention Research Center. It’s also a 10.5% increase over the number of permits counted a year ago in 2020.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Concealed Carry Daily Prayer ]

Unlike gun ownership surveys that may be affected by people’s unwillingness to answer personal questions, concealed handgun permit data is the only really “hard data” available. This increase occurred despite 21 Constitutional Carry states (AK, AR, AZ, IA, ID, KS, KY, ME, MO, MS, MT, ND, NH, OK, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, WV, WY) that no longer provide data on all those legally carrying a concealed handgun because people in those states no longer need a permit to carry. All states now allow concealed carry, although permit rules vary widely between states.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, 7.6% of USA Adults Are Licensed to Concealed Carry Handguns ]

Among the findings of the report:

• Last year, the number of permit holders grew by a record 2 million. This is more than the previous record increase of 1.8 million in 2017. Part of that is due to many states reopening concealed carry applications after the pause due to COVID-19.

 

• 8.3% of American adults have permits. Outside of the restrictive states of California and New York, about 10.0% of adults have a permit.

 

• In 15 states, more than 10% of adults have permits. Since 2019, Arkansas and Oklahoma have fallen below 10%, but they’re now all Constitutional Carry states, meaning people no longer need a permit to carry. Virginia’s concealed carry rate has risen to above 10%.

 

• Alabama has the highest concealed carry rate—32.1%. Indiana is second with 21.6%, and Iowa is third with 16.5%.

 

• 6 states now have over 1 million permit holders: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Florida is the first state to have over 2.5 million permits.

 

• 21 states have adopted Constitutional Carry for their entire state, meaning a permit is no longer required. Because of these Constitutional Carry states, the nationwide growth in permits does not paint a full picture of the overall increase in concealed carry. Many residents still choose to obtain permits so they can carry in other states that have reciprocity agreements, but while permits are soaring in the non-Constitutional Carry states, they fell in the Constitutional Carry ones even though more people are clearly carrying in those states.

 

• In 2021, women made up 28.3% of permit holders in the 14 states that provide data by gender, an increase from the 26.4% last year. 7 states had data from 2012 to 2020/2021, and permit numbers grew 108.7% faster for women than for men.

 

• 3 states that have detailed race and gender data for at least a decade show remarkably larger increases in permits for minorities compared to whites. In Texas, black females saw a 6.3 times greater percentage increase in permits than white males from 2002 to 2020. Oklahoma data from 2002 to 2020 indicated that the increase of licenses approved for Asians and American Indians was more than twice the rate for whites. North Carolina had black permits increase twice as fast as whites from 1996 to 2016.

 

• From 2015 to 2020/2021, in the 4 states that provide data by race over that time period, the number of Asian people with permits increased 93.2% faster than the number of whites with permits. Blacks appear to be the group that has experienced the largest increase in permitted concealed carry, growing 135.7% faster than whites.

 

• Concealed handgun permit holders are extremely law-abiding. In Florida and Texas, permit holders are convicted of firearms related violations at 1/12th of the rate at which police officers are convicted.

 

• If the Supreme Court strikes down the “proper cause” requirement in the 8 May Issue states, it’s estimated there could be at least 2.3 million more concealed handgun permits. The 8 states with that rule have issued permits to only 1.24% of their adult population compared to 10.77% for the other states.

Download the PDF report, Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2021.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The 5 Elements of Self-Defense Law ]

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