Per capita Carry Permits?

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Davek1977

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In keeping up with the ACLU (state level, not national) lawsuit regarding nonresident carry permits currently being debated in SD, I was, I guess, somewhat suprised to realize a full 7% of SD's population have been issued permits. I was wondering how this compared to other states with "shall issue" laws.
 
PA had about 12.6 Million people as of last year. I've read estiamtes of about 650,000-700,000 LTCFs issued, which would be about 5.5%
 
From wikipedia:

Florida has issued 1,871,589 permits since adopting its law in 1987, and had 767,739 licensed permit holders as of October 31, 2010.

Also says that the population of FL as of 2010 was 18,801,310. Hard to tell an actual percentage though, since total population includes children and whatnot.
 
Less than 2% of Texas' population have a CHL....but the figure is growing. :D

If the number of CHL holders were applied to the "eligible" population...instead of the "total" population, that percentage would be higher.
 
i wonder if the percentages are calculated permits divided by population in general, or permits divided by eligable persons.
 
100% of VTs 497,408 adult (over 18) citizens (except those who have lost their 2nd Amendment right under federal law) have concealed carry permits.
 
Pennsylvania's relatively high percentage of LTCF holders is probably due to the fact that it's ~$25 to apply, and requires no training, fingerprinting, or other hoops to jump through. Barriers to issuance are almost nill. I'd still like to see Constitutional Carry here, though.
 
In Floridia and Utah would be harder tell as there are so many out of state permits granted.
 
I KNEW SD would be pretty high in the rankings, but was THRILLED to see we're #1!
 
Amen, rich. With some new voices in Wisconsin, Illinois is all set to be the ONLY State in the 50 without carry law.
 
Well, this turned out to be quite the odyssey.

Interesting question, sez I. Poke around some.

So, first I got the 2007 state populations of 18+ from WISQARS. That comes out in .csv form, so I had my Excel data to start.

Then, realizing that we have some folks in prison or jail, or on probation or parole, I looked at the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics. It's unfair to some states, of course, but the average % of the population in those 4 categories is about 6, so I subtracted 6% of that 18+ population across the board.

Then I started looking for CCW permit stats. What a pain!

There seems to be a decent selection at http://www.legallyarmed.com/ccw_statistics.htm - the author points to sources, and quick checks of a few were right, so I just adopted those, rounding to the nearest 1,000.

I was able to research and find additional numbers: for CA - 40,000, Maine - 12,000, Nevada - 24,000, Oklahoma - 90,000.

But Delaware? New Jersey? New York? West Virginia? Montana? Bah!

So, with the numbers I could find, I get an average of 3.1% of the eligible population has a permit, with Pennsylvania on top with 6.9%.

Just a reasonable guess, I think.
 
Washington State has somewhere in the range of 675,000 CPL holders. I imagine most of those are residents, since other permits that are more desirable (such as Utah) are honored here, and out of state residents would be more likely to get one of the more desired ones.
 
killchain said:
Washington State has somewhere in the range of 675,000 CPL holders. I imagine most of those are residents, since other permits that are more desirable (such as Utah) are honored here, and out of state residents would be more likely to get one of the more desired ones.
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If you can get one in your home state, why would you get some other states permit? Michigan, for one, will not honor a permit unless you are a resident of the state that issued it.

As of 1/3/11, the MSP has reported that there are 255,874 CPL holders in Mi. Google tells me there are 9,969,727 residents in the state. Taking out roughly 24% under 18 (can't find a number for under 21...) gives a 3.4% figure for Michigan.
 
If you can get one in your home state, why would you get some other states permit? Michigan, for one, will not honor a permit unless you are a resident of the state that issued it.
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Some state permits are honored by more states than others. UT and FL seem to be at the top of the list for having reciprocity with the most states.

With my PA license I can carry in 27 states. When I added a UT non-resident permit, that jumped to 34, including some especially relevant ones right next door (OH, DE) that I wouldn't have had otherwise.

Yes, a very few states will only honor a resident permit. C'est la vie. Just one more thing to try to change as we move forward.
 
As a CCW Instructor, I'm trying hard to increase our numbers In Wyoming and Utah Non-Resident Permits as well. :D
 
It's possible that the reason 7% of South Dakotans have a permit is that, up until last year, having a permit meant you could bypass the 2 day waiting period when purchasing a handgun from a dealer. It was a good benefit compared to the cost of the permit ($10 for 4 years, and no training requirement). I know several people who got a permit to get out of the waiting period, but never actually carried a gun.

The legislature eliminated the waiting period last session, so that's no longer an issue. I expect that the number of issued permits will decline slightly over the next few years.

It's nice to see that 7% of South Dakotans have a permit though. I'm guessing that's one of the highest percentages in the country.
 
Alabama has a pretty high stat for CCWs in the state as you need one to carry a weapon in a vehicle. However, you don't need a permit to carry openly so they are no stats on that.
 
As a CCW Instructor, I'm trying hard to increase our numbers In Wyoming and Utah Non-Resident Permits as well
Click to expand...
Do you have a number (and a source) for the permits in Wyoming? There are about 373K eligibles, but I couldn't find the number of active permits.
 
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