Growth in the number of concealed-carry permits has continued nationwide, according to the latest figures from the Crime Prevention Research Center.
According to CPRC’s John Lott Jr., the number of carry permit holders has reached an all-time high of 15 million.
“As of the beginning of this year, there were over 14.5 million concealed-carry permits in the U.S.,” Lott wrote. “That represents a 215 percent increase in the number of permits since 2007. Since then, there has been an increase of about 100,000 permits in just Florida alone, so the total is probably near 15 million now.
“Yet those numbers are clearly an underestimate of the number of people who can legally carry, because there are 12 states now where you don’t need a permit to be able to carry. And while some people in those states still get a permit to be able to carry outside their state, the number of permits in these constitutional carry states does tend to fall.”
