Research Study Finds Right-to-Carry Concealed Handgun Laws Do Not Reduce Violent Crime

8/15/2003

From: Natasha Frost, 212-237-8988, for Criminology & Public Policy

NEW YORK, Aug. 15 -- In a study published in Criminology & Public Policy, researchers Tomislav Kovandzic, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Thomas Marvell, of JUSTEC Research, find no evidence to support the notion that allowing citizens to carry concealed handguns reduces rates of violent crime.

While there have long been limited circumstances under which a citizen could secure a permit to carry a concealed handgun, in the past, issuing authorities enjoyed a great deal of discretion in deciding whether or not to issue the permit. Over the past two decades, however, more than half of the states have relaxed the standards for attaining such permits. In states that have adopted a "right-to-carry" or "shall issue" concealed handgun law, any citizen who meets the objective criteria is granted a concealed handgun permit. Proponents of right-to-carry laws argue that such laws will reduce rates of violent crime because potential aggressors will be more reluctant to target citizens who 'might' be carrying concealed weapons.

In the recently published study "Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns: Crime Control through Gun Decontrol?," Kovandzic and Marvell examine what, if any, impact Florida's right-to-carry law has had on its rate of violent crime. They find that the 1987 passage of Florida's RTC laws appears to have had no statistically significant impact on rates of violent crime. They proffer several explanations for their non-significant findings. First, they point out that few people have taken advantage of the concealed carry law... "despite millions of Floridians being eligible for permits... 12 years after the (RTC) law was in effect, there were only 248,O49 valid concealed weapons permits in Florida, representing 2.1 percent of the Florida adult population." They further speculate that the benefits of allowing potential victims to carry concealed handguns might be cancelled out by an increased number of potential criminals securing permits to carry concealed handguns of their own. Kovandzic and Marvell conclude "there may be numerous reasons for state policymakers to support RTC laws, but the belief that these laws reduce crime should not be one of them."

In one of two 'reaction essays' included in the same issue, John J. Donohue of Stanford University calls the Kovandzic and Marvell finding "the final bullet in the body of the more guns, less crime hypothesis."