Fear & Loading: Permit Holders Obey Laws Better Than Cops

When the just-released “Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2018” report dissected figures from Texas and Florida, it determined, “… permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors and felonies at less than a sixth of the rate for police officers.” The trend isn’t confined to two regions, either. “[T]he data are similar in other states,” according to the Crime Prevention Research Center’s (CPRC) report.

Law Enforcement figures compiled by Police Quarterly harnessed as the statement’s baseline. The periodical’s study of incidents from 2005 to 2007 determined an average of 703 uniformed officers committed crimes per year—an estimate that admittedly may be low due to under-reporting. “With about 685,464 full-time police officers in the U.S. from 2005 to 2007, we find that there were about 103 crimes per hundred thousand officers,” CPRC President John R. Lott Jr. calculates. “For the U.S. population as a whole, the crime rate was 37 times higher—3,813 crimes per hundred thousand people,” he quickly adds to emphasize they’re already an above average demographic.

By comparison, during the nearly three decades, “Between October 1, 1987 and June 30 2017, Florida revoked 11,189 concealed handgun permits for misdemeanors or felonies,” according to the report. “This is an annual revocation rate of 10.4 permits per 100,000.”

“In Texas in 2016 (the last year for which data is available), 148 permit holders were convicted of a felony or misdemeanor—a conviction rate of 12.3 per 100,000,” according to Lott. “Among police, firearms violations occur at a rate of 16.5 per 100,000 officers. Among permit holders in Florida and Texas, the rate is only 2.4 per 100,000.”

The study further rates of carry permit revocations during 2017 in states where figures are publicly available. Texans led the squeaky-clean list at only .013 percent. Oklahoma took saintly silver at .022 percent and Utah claimed the last podium position with .028 percent.