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Rutgers University study correlates concealed carry licenses with gun violence
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Aug 10, 2023
Modified Aug 15, 2023
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Michael Nagle/Xinhua via Getty Images
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Aug 10, 2023
Modified Aug 15, 2023
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Researchers at Rutgers University have found that more concealed carry gun permits issued can lead to higher levels of gun violence.
The study published in the Journal of Urban Health details a link between increases in gun homicides and the number of concealed carry licenses issued in 11 states between 2010 and 2019. The findings come a year after a U.S. Supreme Court decision made it easier for people to obtain a permit to carry handguns in New York’s public spaces.
Researchers at the Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers looked at the relationship between the number of concealed carry weapon licenses issued and gun homicides in 832 counties in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Utah. They found that more concealed carry weapons issued in a given county led to a greater number of homicides in that county the following year.
“We take this all of this to mean that people aren’t using concealed guns in public defensively to thwart potential homicides,” said author Daniel Semenza, PhD, an Assistant Professor at the Rutgers Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, in a press release accompanying the study. “Rather, having more guns in public through concealed carry appears to be more dangerous and leads to higher homicide numbers.”
Semenza's statement continued, “Policy makers need to seriously consider the dangers of allowing more guns in more public places, understanding that an increasingly armed society does not necessarily make us any safer.”
New York State legislators have already done that, passing the Concealed Carry Improvement Act last year, restricting where concealed carry permit owners can bring their weapons — a move that prompted a flurry of legal challenges from Second Amendment supporters.
This story has been updated to clarify Daniel Semenza's quotes were from a press release.
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Catalina Gonella
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