Over 5 million CCWs in just 30 states

[Kennah]

Official Links

Arizona
162,508
http://ccw.azdps.gov/

California
40,296
http://ag.ca.gov/firearms/forms/pdf/ccwissuances2007.pdf

Colorado
66,038
http://www.csoc.org/magazine.asp

Florida
749,741
http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/stats/cw_active.html

Kansas
33,769
http://www.ksag.org/page/concealed-carry

Kentucky
153,119
http://www.kentuckystatepolice.org/conceal.htm

Michigan
275,978
http://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,1607,7-123-1591_3503_4654-77621--,00.html

Minnesota
79,180
https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/bca/bca-divisions/administrative/Documents/2010PTSReport.pdf

Missouri
136,528
http://dor.mo.gov/publicreports/

New Mexico
3,767
http://www.nm-ccw.com/faq.htm

North Carolina
195,553
http://sbi2.jus.state.nc.us/crp/public/Default.htm

North Dakota
12,111
http://www.ag.nd.gov/Reports/BiennialReports/BiennialReport07-09.pdf

Ohio
236,481
http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/2010CCWReport

Oklahoma
107,264
http://www.ok.gov/osbi/Publications/SDA_Statistics.html

Pennsylvania
737,014
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=4451&&PageID=462425&level=2&css=L2&mode=2

South Carolina
119,340
http://www.sled.sc.gov/documents/CWP/SCCWPCalendarYear2010.pdf

South Dakota
55,770
http://apps.sd.gov/news/showDoc.aspx?i=11557

Tennessee
317,001
http://www.tn.gov/safety/stats/DL_Handgun/Handgun/HandgunCarryPermitswithPercentChange.pdf

Texas
461,724
http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/administration/crime_records/chl/demographics.htm

Virginia
238,395
http://www.vsp.state.va.us/Annual_Report.shtm

Numbers from Official Email Responses

Arkansas
104,615
http://www.asp.state.ar.us/divisions/rs/rs_chl.html

Idaho
77,679
http://www.isp.idaho.gov/identification/

Iowa
73,399
http://www.dps.state.ia.us/

Louisiana
37,782
http://www.lsp.org/handguns.html

Montana
26,539
http://www.doj.mt.gov/enforcement/criminaljustice/concealedweapons.asp

Nebraska
12,217
http://statepatrol.nebraska.gov/ConcealCarry.aspx

Utah
141,588
http://publicsafety.utah.gov/bci/concealedfirearms.html

Washington
329,154
http://www.dol.wa.gov/ppu/firfront.htm

West Virginia
65,065
http://www.wvstatepolice.com/

Wyoming
22,943
http://attorneygeneral.state.wy.us/dci/index.html

[spin]

1. So where is all the blood in the streets? (n/t)

[Kennah]

3. My guess is that bloodmeal now appears in the asphalt mixture

[Hoyt]

2. Fortunately, it's still a small group that feels a need to carry a gun or two in public.

Of course, if the lonely 4% have their way, almost everyone will join them in the bad habit.

[Kennah]

4. It's higher when measured against the population eligible to carry because of age

Still waiting to see any indication there is any movement to demand everyone carry.

[spin]

5. All I can do is express my sympathy for the suffering your irrational fear ...

of those who legally carry firearms must cause you.

Out of curiosity, can you spot a person with a concealed weapon when you are in public or do you just worry about everybody.

I'll bet you have high blood pressure.

My advise is just to take a deep breath and relax. If you are an honest citizen, you have a higher chance of getting hit by lightning than you do being shot by a person with a concealed handgun.

edited for typo

[Hoyt]

10. "Fear" = can't walk out of one's house without a gun or two.

[spin]

16. "Fear" = being paranoid about honest people who do not threaten you in the least ...

and projecting your fear on them by accusing them of being afraid.

I suggest you read this article.

Raging Against Self Defense:
A Psychiatrist Examines The Anti-Gun Mentality
By Sarah Thompson, M.D.

***snip***

Defense Mechanisms

Projection

About a year ago I received an e-mail from a member of a local Jewish organization. The author, who chose to remain anonymous, insisted that people have no right to carry firearms because he didn't want to be murdered if one of his neighbors had a "bad day". (I don't know that this person is a "he", but I'm assuming so for the sake of simplicity.) I responded by asking him why he thought his neighbors wanted to murder him, and, of course, got no response. The truth is that he's statistically more likely to be murdered by a neighbor who doesn't legally carry a firearm1 and more likely to be shot accidentally by a law enforcement officer.1

How does my correspondent "know" that his neighbors would murder him if they had guns? He doesn't. What he was really saying was that if he had a gun, he might murder his neighbors if he had a bad day, or if they took his parking space, or played their stereos too loud. This is an example of what mental health professionals call projection - unconsciously projecting one's own unacceptable feelings onto other people, so that one doesn't have to own them.3 In some cases, the intolerable feelings are projected not onto a person, but onto an inanimate object, such as a gun,4 so that the projector believes the gun itself will murder him.

Projection is a defense mechanism. Defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological mechanisms that protect us from feelings that we cannot consciously accept.5 They operate without our awareness, so that we don't have to deal consciously with "forbidden" feelings and impulses. Thus, if you asked my e-mail correspondent if he really wanted to murder his neighbors, he would vehemently deny it, and insist that other people want to kill him.

Projection is a particularly insidious defense mechanism, because it not only prevents a person from dealing with his own feelings, it also creates a world where he perceives everyone else as directing his own hostile feelings back at him.
http://www.vcdl.org/new/raging.htm

For your information, I left my home today to drive a person to the Social Security office. Knowing that weapons are not allowed in a Social Security Office, I left my concealed firearm behind. As I entered the building, an armed guard asked me if I had any firearms, knives or a cell phone on me. I replied that I had a cell phone and she asked me to turn it off. She asked the same questions to everyone who entered the building.

I was never in any fear because I was not carrying. When I go to the courthouse or a city council meeting, I also leave my concealed weapon behind.

As I have explained numerous times to you, I carry because I spend the money, the time and the effort to get a carry permit and there is absolutely no reason that I should leave my carry weapon home in the safe when I am out. I fully realize that the chances of my being attacked on any single occasion are almost as slim as my chances of winning the lotto by buying a single ticket. I doubt and hope that I will never have to use my concealed weapon, but I have no ability to predict the future and I would feel like a total fool if I did have a legitimate reason to use my weapon and I had chose to leave it behind. I might even be a dead fool.

I don't live in fear because I am prepared. It's my personality to like to be prepared and it has paid off many times during my life.

[Hoyt]

19. So I should be able to walk around with a sword or grenade? Don't think so.

[NewMoonTherian]

21. Wait. Why not a sword?

The grenade is regarded as an indiscriminate weapon, being that you can't accurately control whom it will affect. That's often pointed to as a line of demarcation for personal arms. As for the sword, I have no problem with it. It would seem fairly odd, but to each his own. Besides that, a sword can be camouflaged easily inside a walking stick, so it could fall under the auspices of concealed carry, given a slight rewording of current laws.


And this is a little off-topic, but as soon as you mentioned swords and grenades in the same sentence, my mind jumped straight to that old NES game, Ikari Warriors 2. I must be in a weird frame of mind tonight!

[Atypical Liberal]

33. Who has suggested otherwise?

So I should be able to walk around with a sword or grenade? Don't think so.

No one has suggested this.

Grenades are not capable of targeting discrete targets.

I don't care if you carry a sword, though.

[spin]

38. I would imagine I could carry a sword cane if I wanted and it would be legal ...

with a Florida concealed weapons permit as it might be considered an "other deadly weapon carried on or about the person." Note: I am not an attorney nor would I want to be one. Therefore any statement I make on Florida law is merely my opinion.

CRIMES...WEAPONS AND FIREARMS

790.001 Definitions.—As used in this chapter, except where the context otherwise requires:

(3)(a) “Concealed weapon” means any dirk, metallic knuckles, slungshot, billie, tear gas gun, chemical weapon or device, or other deadly weapon carried on or about a person in such a manner as to conceal the weapon from the ordinary sight of another person.
http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/weapons/index.html

Cold Steel makes several sword canes. I considered buying one a couple of years ago but decided that since I have no training as a sword fighter, it would only end up as a piece to add to my knife collection.

A grenade is a poor self defense weapon since most real life self defense occurs at extremely close range. Plus they are illegal to carry.

[We_Have_A_Problem]

39. Why not?

In many states, you could easily walk around with a sword without any legal issues.

Grenade? Again, in many states, you could. Granted, there would be a few legal hoops to jump through and you'd have to have the required tax stamp from the BATFE.

Neither of the things you mentioned are illegal to own or transport.

[Kennah]

43. I would have an issue with grenades because of the indiscriminate area effect

[Kennah]

44. I have no issues with people carrying swords

Our knife laws and our gun laws are very distinct and separate. Restrictive knife laws were often targeted at "unwashed, heathen, foreign, brown people" because "good, white, Christian people" wouldn't carry an icky knife.

When I lived in Florida, my Concealed Weapon or Firearm License allowed me to legally carry a switchblade, and I did--along with a gun.

These days, while I still carry a knife almost anywhere I go, whether I have a gun or not, if I had my choice I would carry a stick, specifically my Got Stick (36" MC02 series).

http://www.allthingsfilipino.com/index.php?productID=164

[YllwFvr]

29. Hypervigilance

Is what law enforcement prefers to call it ;)

[Kennah]

42. So if any gunowner has ever walked out of their house with a gun, this is a fail.

I am frequently outside my house without a gun.

[PavePusher]

7. Yeah, minorities shouldn't have Civil Rights....

It just annoys the masses.

:sarcasm:

[Hoyt]

11. There you go again, comparing your pitiful gun plight to the real civil rights of minorities who

were discriminated against solely for their ethnicity.

Not to mention the fact that they were shot by supposedly law abiding citizens with guns.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

14. There you go ignoring the classist and racist roots of gun control

which are still in force today.

[Hoyt]

18. Fine -- the solution is to keep them out of public for EVERYone.

[beevul]

25. The solution to WHAT hoyt?

There are no studies that show lawful gun carry is a problem, so WHAT EXACTLY would keeping them "out of public for EVERYone" be a solution to?


I'll answer for you:


"something I despise and disagree with".


Nothing more nothing less.


The world needs to change for hoyt because hoyt says so. Because someone or a number of someones is doing something you just dont like.


MMMMkay... :eyes:

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

26. his irrational fears

[ProgressiveProfessor]

35. From classist/racist to prohibitionist...

At least you are showing your true colors.

[We_Have_A_Problem]

40. Good luck with that.

You're welcome to start a movement to repeal the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th and 14th amendments and then institute a new amendment granting the authority to the government to restrict private ownership of weapons.

Hey - if you can get that accomplished, go for it.

On the other hand, you could choose the more attainable path and move to a country which has no such protections...which would be virtually anywhere else.

[SteveM]

8. What study indicates the "4% [are] lonely?"

[Hoyt]

12. What study indicates they are not, when 96% see no need to arm themselves in public.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

28. So because a study does not disprove something, that makes it true?

Your logic is asinine. If you disagree, show me a study that indicates it is not.

[SteveM]

41. My goodness. Back to proving a negative. nt

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. So you concur that it is a movement that is growing...

that is a step towards getting away from the bad fiction you have been plaguing us with.

[Hoyt]

20. Growing like a cancer.

[ileus]

27. OC/CC are promising cures for the cancer...

[Hoyt]

31. Open/concealed carry are a pox on our society.

[cleanhippie]

34. More of the same nonsense

[ProgressiveProfessor]

36. A pox on the criminals...are they the society you are defending?

[Kennah]

45. Only a pox on the house of the person who is disarmed when seconds count

[NewMoonTherian]

23. I disagree.

I do encourage my loved ones to consider concealed carry, but I don't promote it as anything other than a personal choice. A few have decided it's right for them, and many have not. That's why it's a right, not a responsibility.

[Atypical Liberal]

32. What's bad about it?

Of course, if the lonely 4% have their way, almost everyone will join them in the bad habit.

If that's a bad habit, I'd hate to see what you think are good ones.

If the other 96% of the country were as law-abiding as the 4% who carry firearms, we would be living in almost a crime-free society.

[Abin Sur]

6. Let's not forget that 4 states now have Constitutional Carry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_carry

Vermont, Alaska, Arizona, and Wyoming.

It should be noted that 11 other states are currently considering adopting it as well: Colorado (yay!), Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia all have pending legislation.

Here's an animated gif showing the history of right to carry:

[PuffedMica]

9. Which shows that in the other 46 States

Which shows that in the other 46 States citizens are forced to ask the Government for permission to exercise their Constitutionally guaranteed rights.

[NewMoonTherian]

22. But the Constitutional Carry movement is also spreading.

CCW took a long time to get traction. It's just a matter of keeping up pressure and educating more neutral voters to support adherence to the Bill of Rights, whether or not they choose to avail themselves of certain rights.

[Kennah]

46. Will we have 50 RTC states before we ever get to 10 CC states?

1903 Constitutional Carry recognized in Vermont via the Rosenthal decision

1994 Alaska, Arizona and Wyoming get Right To Carry

2003 Alaska gets Constitutional Carry

2010 Arizona gets Constitutional Carry

2011 Wyoming gets Constitutional Carry

[NewMoonTherian]

48. My answer is no.

We're 10 states away from nationwide RTC, and most of those are moving in the opposite direction. Constitutional carry hasn't even penetrated mainstream discussion yet, but as it does, I think we'll see it begin to take off. Not to the extent of RTC, but over the next five years, I think we'll see a handful of new CC states.

[Hoopla Phil]

15. Blood pudding anyone?

Oh wait. . .

[ileus]

17. Nice to see freedom catching on and growing...congrats America.

[gravity556]

24. Poor Illinois... ;( Keep your chin up, guys!

[DonP]

37. We're working on it - in the legislature and the courts

Funny how the gun control people tried to use the courts to sue the gun makers out of existence and now the tables have turned completely and they are losing one major case after another.

We have to turn the votes of only 6 legislators for a preemptive proof majority. The court cases have called for a summary judgement by 9/15 so they can't keep stalling. Then we go to the same circuit court that just spanked Chicago on their game playing with gun ranges in Ezell v. Chicago.

[YllwFvr]

30. Happy to see my state

Has around three quarters of a million.

[Kennah]

47. Another 700K CCWs in these 7 states

Alabama
105,869
CCRKBA

Connecticut
130,616
Bird

Delaware
1,100
CCRKBA

Indiana
311,657
Bird

Maine
24,000
CCRKBA

Mississippi
16,700
Bird

Nevada
18,369
Bird

Oregon
97,492
Bird

Numbers come from two much older sources.

A 1998 CCRBKA press release, which is no longer on their website, and the 2004 fourth edition of Chris Bird's book "The Concealed Handgun Manual"