About a third of the states have adopted laws requiring that citizens who pass a background check and a safety class must be granted a permit to carry a concealed firearm for protection, if they apply.
Critics of carry reform have predicted that blood will flow in the streets as hot-tempered citizens shoot each other in trivial disputes.
Analysis of murder rates in carry reform states shows that fears of reform opponents have been unfounded. Careful study of homicide trends in these states reveals that carry reform has not led to an increased homicide rate.
In Florida, for example, a murder rate that was 36% above the national average when carry reform went into effect in 1987, fell by 1991 to 4% below the national average.
The fact the permits are available does not mean that everyone will carry a gun. Usually only about 1% to 4% of a state's population will choose to obtain a permit.
Accordingly, states considering carry reform can enact such laws knowing that reform will not endanger public safety. Carry reform, at least sometimes, allows citizens to save their own lives by protecting themselves against criminal attack.
An additional reform, already on the books in California, allows domestic violence victims whom a court has determined to be in immediate danger, to carry a handgun for protection, without need to undergo a months-long application process for a permit.
What would happen if adults who passed a background check and safety test qualified for a permit to carry a concealed handgun? About a third of all states have adopted laws or practices so that persons who are legally allowed to possess a handgun in their own home are eligible for a license to carry a concealed handgun for protection. The laws require that eligible persons must, after passing a background check (and sometimes a firearms safety class) be granted the permit if they apply. If the application is rejected, the burden of proof is on the non-issuing sheriff, police chief, or judge, to show that an applicant is unqualified or a danger to public safety. Typically, about 1% to 4% of a state's population decides to obtain such a permit.
This Issue Paper examines how these laws have been written to satisfy concerns about public safety. The Paper also investigates the concern that more permits will lead to more needless killings. After analysis of all available data, this Paper finds that concealed carry laws can be enacted by states with little fear that such laws will compromise public safety, and in some cases, such laws may enhance public safety.
Laws prohibiting concealed carrying of handguns without a permit are, in most of the United States, relatively recent. While some statutes from before the Civil War did address concealed carrying, they did so by outlawing it entirely, rather than by setting up a system whereby concealed carrying would be lawful only with a permit. These antebellum statutes usually had no exemptions for sheriffs or other peace officers, even when on duty. [1] During the 1920s and 1930s many states adopted "A Uniform Act to Regulate the Sale and Possession of Firearms." This model law, adopted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and supported by the National Rifle Association, prohibited unlicensed concealed carry.
Recognizing that there were circumstances when at least some civilians would have a legitimate need for concealed carry of a handgun, most states adopted provisions allowing a sheriff, police chief or judge to issue concealed handgun permits. Significantly, such statutes were broadly discretionary; while the law might specify certain minimum standards for obtaining a permit, the decision whether a permit should be issued was not regulated by express statutory standards. [2]
In some parts of the United States, concealed handgun permit statutes were passed for frankly racist reasons, as a method of prohibiting Blacks from carrying arms. "The statute was never intended to be applied to the white population and in practice has never been so applied," in the words of a Florida Supreme Court Justice. [3]
While the motivations behind California's concealed handgun statute are not as clearly understood, the effect has been similar. California's legislative research body studied the issue in 1986 and concluded: "The overwhelming majority of permit holders are white males." [4] Because so many victims of violent crime are female or non-white, the discrimination in granting of carry permits is especially hard to justify. [5]
Not every state adopted the Uniform Act. Some states had already enacted their own statutes. [6] Vermont adopted no statute prohibiting concealed carry of handguns, at least partly because of the Vermont Supreme Court's expansive reading of the Vermont Constitution's protections in State v. Rosenthal (1903). [7] Today, Vermont still has no laws prohibiting or regulating concealed carry, except "with the intent or avowed purpose of injuring a fellow man..." [8]
In many jurisdictions which continue to retain unlimited administrative discretion, abuse of discretion is common. Persons denied permits are often people whom a reasonable use of discretion would find to be most qualified for permits. Conversely, persons granted permits are often politically influential, rather than really in need.
In Denver, Police Chief Ari Zavaras slashed the number of carry permits, granting only 45 permits in a city of half a million. Detective William Phillips, the administrator of Zavaras' permit program, explained that only applicants with a "true and compelling need" could be granted permits. "Just because you fear for your life is not a compelling reason to have a permit," he elaborated. [9] After Chief Zavaras retired, he admitted that he carries a handgun almost constantly. "Now, when wandering around Denver, I very rarely go without one."
Denver talk-show host Alan Berg was Jewish, passionate, highly provocative, and fond of insulting people with whom he disagreed. When Berg began receiving death threats from white supremacists, he went to a local police department to ask for a handgun carry permit. The police chief attempted to talk him out of applying, and finally rejected his application. Shortly thereafter, Berg was assassinated by members of Aryan Nations. [10] No one will ever know whether, had Berg been armed, he might have frightened off the men who came to murder him; what is known is that without a gun, Alan Berg was speedily killed.
In Los Angeles County, a female private detective was disqualified from obtaining a permit because of her gender. [11] In the City of Los Angeles, the police administration refused to issue any permits at all. In a city of over three million people, from 1984 until 1992, not one person was found by the Los Angeles Police Department to "need" a handgun permit.
The Los Angeles policy changed, however, on June 28, 1992. The new police chief, Willie Williams, twice failed practice versions of the POST (Police Officer Standards and Training) test. As a result, Mr. Williams could not legally qualify to be a police officer in Los Angeles (although he could retain the appointed position of police chief). On June 28, 1992, Mr. Williams was issued a concealed carry permit, the first civilian since 1984 to be so honored. [12] That fall, the City of Los Angeles was sued for its discriminatory handling of permits; the City settled before trial, and entered into a settlement promising to issue licenses on the basis of need. [13]
Despite the City's agreement to the settlement, only five permits were issued in the ensuing nine months. Three of those permits went to government employees, and two to private attorneys. On the basis of the absence of a "compelling" need, a permit was denied to a jeweler who routinely carried large amounts of jewelry and valuables, who had been burgled, who had received police-documented death threats from a criminal he had helped a deputy apprehend, and who had passed a defensive handgun class. [14]
Licensing in the rest of California is similarly haphazard, and local officials enforce their own criteria for who is "qualified" to exercise the "privilege" of protecting her life with a firearm. For example, one town's police department requires, among other things, applicants to pass a written exam with questions such as:
Questions such as the one above are equivalent to conditioning the issuance of a driver's license on passing a test for becoming an auto mechanic.
In New York City, carry permits are awarded on the basis of political and social influence. Permits have been awarded to:
Other licensees include an aide to a city councilman widely regarded as corrupt, several major slumlords, a Teamsters Union boss who is a defendant in a major racketeering suit, and a restaurateur identified with organized crime and alleged to control important segments of the hauling industry. [17]
At the same time, permits are not awarded to persons in genuine need, such as crime victims who are cooperating with the police, will testify against a criminal, and who are receiving death threats from the criminal. Such persons will not even have their permit applications for home handgun possession processed within the legal six month limit for home handgun license applications.
And while being a publisher of a respectable publication such as the New York Times or National Review is apparently sufficient in itself for a carry permit, being the recipient of death threats such as "kill the white creep...You will be shot...This is no joke. We are going to kill Al Goldstein," is not a sufficient basis. Mr. Goldstein, while the recipient of death threats whose seriousness is not contested by the police, is the publisher of the highly unrespectable Screw magazine. [18]
Class discrimination pervades the process. New York City taxi drivers, who are more at risk of robbery than almost anyone else in the city, are denied gun permits, since they carry less than $2,000 in cash. (Many taxi drivers carry weapons anyway.) As the courts have ruled, ordinary citizens and storeowners in the city may not receive so-called carry permits because they have no greater need for protection than anyone else in the city. [19]
As "reform" of these abuses of discretion, some police administrators refuse to issue permits to anyone, other than retired police officers.
Given the problems with discretionary permit system, it is not surprising that many people have begun calling for, and many legislatures have enacted, laws to regularize the carry permit application process. [20] The map on this page shows the states which have, either by statute or by practice, made handgun carry permits available to all adults who can pass a background check and a proficiency exam.
[graphic of map goes here]
States which allow law-abiding adults to carry handguns for protection
In increasing numbers since 1987, many American states have adopted a new breed of concealed handgun permit laws that make it easier for many adults to get a permit to carry a concealed handgun. While most residents of these states are unlikely to ever apply for a concealed weapon permit, the choice is up to them.
How many permits have been issued? What happened to the murder rate when these laws took effect? How many serious problems developed because of the laws? In the following sections, we will examine the peculiarities of each state's non-discretionary concealed handgun permit law, and what happened to murder rates before and after these laws took effect.
Proponents of carry reform have hoped that such laws would reduce crime of all types, including homicide. Reform advocates suggest that crime will fall not only because lawfully armed citizens will use guns to thwart criminal attack, but also because the general deterrent effect of citizens carrying guns will cause some criminals to desist from confrontational crime.
The expectation of carry advocates is consistent with research performed for the National Institute of Justice. When professors James D. Wright and Peter Rossi interviewed and polled felony prisoners in ten state correctional systems, 56% of the prisoners said that a criminal would not attack a potential victim who was known to be armed. Thirty- nine percent of the felons had personally decided not to commit a crime because they thought the victim might have a gun, and 8% said that this experience had occurred "many times." Criminals in states with higher civilian gun ownership rates worried the most about armed victims. [21]
Conversely, opponents of carry reform have argued that reform will lead to tragic increases in homicide. Accordingly, this paper examines what happened to murder rates before and after these laws are adopted. While there is a need for further research to examine what, if any, effect the carry reform laws have had on crimes such as rape and robbery, the examination of murder rates is a reasonable starting point for carry reform analysis. In particular, studying the murder rates allows an evaluation of the "worst case" scenario offered by carry opponents: that carry reform will lead to increased homicide.
Does it make sense simply to compare the murder rates of each of these states after the new laws have taken effect to the national average? No, because many of the states that adopted non-discretionary permit laws have always been low murder rate states, and any comparison that fails to see how much murder rates changed because of these laws, will give an artificially rosy analysis of the effects of carry reform.
We could (and will) examine whether the murder rates declined after the new laws took effect, but this would be misleading as well, because many of the new laws took effect between 1986 and 1990, when the murder rates for the entire country were on the rise. Thus, a rising murder rate in one state when most other states were also experiencing a rise might mislead us about the effect of the new law.
A more meaningful measurement is murder rate percentage. What is the relationship between the murder rate for a particular state, and the murder rate for the rest of the United States? As an example, if Florida's murder rate for 1975 was 13.5 per 100,000 people per year, and the murder rate for the rest of the United States was 9.3 per 100,000 people per year, then Florida's murder rate percentage for 1975 was 145%. In other words, for every 100 murders per 100,000 people in the rest of the U.S., there were 145 murders per 100,000 people in Florida. Since the murder rates for many states rise and fall roughly in parallel with the rest of the U.S., the murder rate percentage can be a meaningful measure of how a particular state's policies influence the murder rate.
Recognizing that some readers will regard with suspicion such a synthetic measure (as is only proper--Disraeli's epigram "lies, damn lies, and statistics" comes to mind), we have included graphs for the murder rate for each state, and for the rest of the United States for the years that we will examine.
Why look at the year the law was passed? First of all, in some cases the law took effect part-way through the year, as it did in Florida. Secondly, the deterrent effect of such laws may be related to public discussion of these new laws. Thus, we may even see some benefit before the law takes effect, as it increases the criminal's fear that the next victim may be armed.
Washington State adopted the Uniform Pistol & Revolver Act in 1935. In 1961, Washington State departed from the discretionary permit system, and required that if the applicant for a concealed weapon permit was allowed to possess a handgun under Washington law, the permit had to be issued. [22] At first glance, Washington's new policy appears quite remarkable, but a little reflection on the nature of concealed weapons suggests the state's decision reflected a realistic understanding of handgun ownership.
The only circumstances under which a concealed handgun is likely to come to the attention of the police are that either the weapon was drawn (either criminally or in self-defense), or that the person carrying it was searched by the police for some other, presumably criminal reason. A person allowed to possess a concealable firearm in his or her home, cannot, practically speaking, be prevented from carrying it concealed outside the home. As a New York court upholding New York State's handgun licensing law (the Sullivan Act) observed, "If he has it in his possession, he can readily stick it in his pocket when he goes abroad." [23]
If large numbers of handgun owners choose to ignore a concealed weapon law, the state has only three ways of responding: repeal the law, restrict handgun ownership at home, or make concealed weapon permits available to nearly anyone who is allowed to own a handgun. Whereas New York decided to license the possession of a handgun at home very restrictively, Washington state decided to make permits easy to get, and thus keep handgun ownership safe and legal.
Washington's statute is astonishingly forceful:
The statute goes on to list the conditions that would cause, "[s]uch citizen's constitutional right to bear arms" to be denied, namely the applicant being under 21 years old; subject to a court order or injunction regarding firearms; out on bail pending trial or appeal; awaiting sentencing for a crime of violence; or subject to an outstanding arrest warrant for a misdemeanor or felony.
The same statute includes provisions for filing a civil suit against any agency that wrongfully refuses to issue a license, or modifies the requirements of the law. Notably, RCW sec. 9.41.070 allows non-residents to obtain such permits, although the state has up to 60 days to perform a background check on non-residents and on residents who have moved into Washington in the last 90 days. [25]
In 1983, two important changes were made: the licenses would be valid for a 4 year term (previously they had only been valid for 2 years); and license applicants who were improperly denied, and who sued an issuing agency for wrongful denial, would be automatically awarded attorneys fees.
As of 1993 there were 241,806 licenses outstanding in Washington State. [26] Given Washington's population of approximately five million, about 4% of the population appears to have a carry permit. [27]
In Washington, the effects of the law (for good or bad), were subtle. As the accompanying graph shows, after the passage of the non-discretionary issuance law, murder rates rose and fell largely in line with the rate for the rest of the U.S. In the two years before the new law took effect, Washington's murder rate was a bit less than half of the rate for the rest of the U.S. (Unfortunately, the Uniform Crime Reports program of the FBI only began to produce reasonably complete statewide murder statistics in 1959.)
Throughout the period from 1961 through 1982, the Washington murder percentage rates stayed between 44% and 60% of the rest of America. While U.S. murder rates dropped in the early 1980s, Washington murder rate percentage continued to rise, reaching a peak of 68% of the U.S. rate in 1988, before dropping back to more normal levels in the last three years. Was this the result of all those Washingtonians carrying concealed handguns?
Probably not. The murder rate percentage was rising before the new law took effect. At least part of the increase during the 1980s can be attributed to the actions of one sociopath, the Green River Killer, who murdered 48 Washington women during the years 1982-84. [28] This one person was responsible for at least 8% of all murders in Washington State in those three years. (We say, at least, because many of the Green River Killer's victims may not have been identified as his victims.)
Similarly, Ted Bundy murdered at least 10 women in Washington State in 1974 (before moving on to other states), [29] causing more than 5% of the murders that year. But we must be careful that we do not let these aberrations explain too much; the Green River Killer's activities stopped in 1984 for no known reason, while the murder rate percentages in Washington State remained unusually high until 1989 when they suddenly plunged to levels typical of the period before 1982.
For many years, Washington State remained an aberration with its non-discretionary permit process. While permits were easy to get in many other states, and some courts were prepared to hold that a concealed weapon permit was, in some sense, a right guaranteed by the state constitution, [30] the language of many other state statutes still left substantial discretion to the government to deny a permit. [31]
All this started to change in 1987, when the new wave of non-discretionary concealed handgun permit laws started to appear.
Florida's 1987 reform law set off the modern wave of carry reform that has now been copied in many other states. Among all the states, Florida has collected the most detailed information about the impact of the carry laws. Florida also provides a good test case for the possible negative impacts of carry reform. A high-crime state with heavy urbanization, a massively over-crowded prison system, and an extremely diverse (and often tense) ethnic mix of population, Florida has all the ingredients for concealed carry disaster.
Vermont, which has never required a license for open or concealed carry, might be expected to suffer few consequences from widespread handgun carrying; the state already has a low crime rate, is relatively homogeneous, and is mostly rural. Florida, being just the opposite, should be the place where concealed carry would cause major problems, if concealed carry were capable of causing problems anywhere in the United States. The Florida problems might be expected to be especially severe in Dade County (Miami) where crime and racial tensions are higher than in all but a few major American cities.
In 1987, Florida adopted a non-discretionary concealed weapon permit law that guaranteed issuance of a concealed weapon permit to any Floridian who is 21 or older; "Does not suffer from a physical infirmity which prevents the safe handling of a weapon or firearm"; has not been convicted of a felony; has not been convicted of a drug charge in the preceding three years; has not been confined for alcohol problems in the preceding three years; has completed any of a number of firearms safety classes; and has not been committed to a mental hospital in the preceding five years. A 1993 revision allows American citizens who are not Florida residents to obtain a permit that can be used when visiting Florida.
The only area of discretion was that a license could be denied if an applicant had been convicted of any misdemeanor crime of violence, or was on probation for such a crime, within the preceding three years. [32] Judges were required to take the firearms safety class, but were otherwise exempted from the rest of the list of requirements. [33]
The Florida permit ended the power of local law enforcement to deny carry permits for arbitrary reasons. Under the old system, a doctor who performed abortions and whose clinic had been bombed was denied a permit because he was not in the professional security business. [34]
Coverage of the Florida reform in The Economist (a British newsweekly) typified most of the American national media's coverage. The magazine asserted that after taking a few hours of training, "Anyone who wants to carry a pistol may now do so." Apparently, the provisions about minimum age requirements, drug abuse, felony convictions, mental hospital commitment, and misdemeanor convictions, excluded no one in The Economist's eyes. [35] The Florida media were sometimes hysterical, predicting that the law would increase lawlessness and death. Opposing legislators warned that Florida would become "the GUNshine state."
How many permits were issued? From October 1, 1987, when the new law went into effect, to December 31, 1993, there were 205,631 applications received. A total of 986 applications were denied (572 for criminal history, 414 for incomplete application). A total of 188,106 licenses were issued, of which 105,214 were valid as of December 31 1993. (Many licensees did not renew.) Several thousand applications were either in process, denied and under appeal, suspended, or withdrawn by the applicant. [36]
A total of 350 licenses have been revoked. The revocations were for: clemency rule change or legislative change (66); illegible prints (10); crime prior to licensure (74, of which 4 involved a firearm); crime after licensure (182, of which 17 involved a firearm); and "other" (18). Thus, of the 188,106 licensees, approximately 1 in 10,000 (1/100th of 1%) had a license revoked for a crime involving a firearm. [37]
Dade County (Miami) has compiled more detailed data. Dade showed a dramatic change in the number of permits as a result of the new law. The number of permits increased from 1,200 (in September 1987) to 21,092 (in August 1992). The Dade police kept detailed records of all arrest and non-arrest incidents involving permit-holders in Dade County. The following incidents of criminal misuse of a firearm leading to a conviction and a license revocation were reported: two cases of aggravated assault involving a firearm (one of which involved the gun being fired); one case of armed trespass of cultivated land; and one case of a motorist shooting at another car. Besides the above firearms crimes, there was one case where a permit-holder accidentally attempted to enter the secured area at Miami International Airport carrying a firearm in her purse, and one case where a man accidentally shot himself in the leg. The Dade police recorded the following incidents involving defensive use of licensed carry firearms: two robbery cases where the permit-holder produced a firearm and the robbers fled; two cases involving permit-holders who intervened to attempt to stop a robbery, but the robbers were not apprehended (and no one else was hurt); one robbery victim whose gun was taken away by the robber; a victim who shot a pit bull that was attacking him; two cases involving the capture of a burglar; three cases of burglars being scared away but not captured; [38] one case of thwarted rape; and a bail bondsman firing two shots at a fleeing bond-jumper who was wanted for armed robbery. [39]
The Florida/Dade reports show the following:
>From the enactment of the 1987 Florida carry reform until August 31, 1992, the Dade County permit incident tracking project provided the most detailed information available about actual incidents involving carry permit holders. The tracking program had been created as result of intense fears among some police administrators about the consequences of the carry reform law. The tracking program was abandoned in the fall of 1992, because of the rarity of incidents involving carry permit holders, and the greatly diminished concern about the issue on the part of law enforcement administrators. The fact that negative incidents involving permit holders were so rare as to not be worth counting is in itself evidence of the lack of negative effects of carry reform.
Representative Ron Silver, the leading opponent of Florida's carry reform, graciously admitted in November 1990, "There are lots of people, including myself, who thought things would be a lot worse as far as that particular situation [carry reform] is concerned. I'm happy to say they're not." John Fuller, general counsel for the Florida Sheriffs Association, stated, "I haven't seen where we have had any instance of persons with permits causing violent crimes, and I'm constantly on the lookout." [40]
Based on the reports of incidents known to the police, the Florida carry reform law would appear to be a net plus for public safety. The pro-safety result becomes even more lopsided if one believes that the persons who committed crimes with their licensed firearms probably would have committed the same crimes even without a license.
At the same time, the sum of known incidents does not tell us everything that would be desirable to know. Many crimes are not reported to the police. We have no certain figures for the number of crimes perpetrated or thwarted by permit holders which never came to the attention of the police.
Accordingly, we now look at the overall trends in Florida murder rates. Of all the states that enacted concealed carry reform, Florida shows the most dramatic change. As the graph details, Florida's murder rate throughout the period 1975-1986 was between 118% and 157% of the murder rate elsewhere in America. After passage of Florida's law, the murder rate began declining, rapidly, dramatically, and consistently, at a time when the rest of the U.S. was experiencing an increase in murder rates. By 1991, Floridians were less likely to be murdered than people elsewhere in America. Only in 1992 did the murder rate percentage stop falling. Even then, this is because the U.S. murder rate fell more than 10% from 1991 to 1992, while the Florida murder rate fell "only" 5%.
Greater safety for Florida residents and American tourists may be the reason for another notable characteristic of Florida in recent headlines--criminal attacks on foreign tourists. These tourists stood out because of the distinctive rental car license plates that Florida issued until recently. Unlike Florida residents or American tourists (who might shoot back), foreign tourists would certainly be unarmed, suggests the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. [41]
Carry reform, even though it coincided with a drop in the Florida homicide rate, is obviously not sufficient in itself to solve all the problems of a dysfunctional criminal justice system. Parts of Florida remains extremely unsafe, for reasons that would strike many Americans as intuitively obvious. Perhaps as a result of the pressure put on the criminal justice system by the "drug war," Miami is astonishingly lenient with serious criminals. According to study by the Miami Herald, only 15% of convicted felons in Dade County (Miami) are sent to state prison, compared to 46% nationally. Even compared to cities such as Los Angeles, New York, or Washington, Dade County sends its felons to prison at a much lower rate, and if the felons do go to prison they stay in prison for much less time than felons in other jurisdictions. A resident of metropolitan Miami is at a higher risk of being victimized than a resident of any other city in the United States. [42]
Concealed carry permits are obviously not a complete solution to a criminal justice system that has nearly collapsed. But given the government's manifest inability to protect the populace, it is certainly appropriate that the people be allowed to protect themselves.
Readers in a hurry may wish to skip the remaining state-by-state descriptions, and proceed directly to the "analysis" section. The story of the other states is essentially the same as Washington and Florida. In general, the adoption of concealed carry reform did not lead to a noticeable increase in the homicide rate; in a few cases the homicide rate dropped, but the drop cannot be tied with certainty to the new law.
In 1988, Virginia's concealed weapon statute was modified. While the changes were not quite as explicit as the Washington or Florida statutes--and indeed, Virginia's Legislature continued modifying the statute through 1992 to deal with judges who resist issuing of permits--the intent is clear:
Because some judges refused to renew permits, the law was again amended in 1992 to require judges to renew permits "unless there is good cause shown for refusing to reissue a permit." [44] Unlike the other non-discretionary permit laws that have been passed, there is no maximum time specified for an application to be processed.
Virginia has no centralized data base of concealed weapon permits. Each of 123 circuit courts in Virginia would have to be contacted in order to determine how many permits are currently issued. [45]
The first year after the change showed a dramatic decline in murder rate percentages, followed by a return to murder rate percentages typical of the period before the law. Virginia, however, has the misfortune to border Washington, D.C., and some of this failure may represent spillover of rapidly increasing crime from the District of Columbia (where handgun possession is almost entirely outlawed). [46] Moreover, the Virginia Legislature has had to revise its statutes several times to make it clear that judges really are supposed to issue permits. The need for repeated revision suggests that while the law required issuance of permits, many judges effectively nullified it by using discretionary authority not granted them.
Even today, while the law is applied as written in most of Virginia, in the two counties of Virginia closest to Washington, D.C., carry permit applicants must often spend thousands of dollars in legal fees to force courts to issue permits according to legislative command. [47] Thus, where permits are the most badly needed, they are the least available.
Georgia's concealed weapon permit law before 1989 was somewhat ambiguous. While one part of the concealed weapon statute states, "The judge of the probate court of each county may...issue a license..." [48] [emphasis added], a later portion specifies:
Other portions of the statute specify that licenses shall not be issued to anyone under 21, [50] a fugitive from justice, or anyone awaiting court proceedings for a felony or "forcible misdemeanor." [51] Also disqualified is anyone placed under supervision by a court within the last ten years for a "forcible felony," or the last five years for a "forcible misdemeanor or a nonforcible felony," [52] or hospitalized for alcohol or drug treatment in the last five years. [53] Anyone convicted of any sort of manufacturing, distribution, or possession of a controlled substance is likewise ineligible. [54] The maximum fee for processing was set at $30. [55]
But was the issuance of a permit discretionary or not? The use of "may" in one place suggested that it was discretionary. Yet the language "shall issue" seems non-discretionary. The Georgia Attorney General resolved the question in 1989, when he issued an opinion holding that the judge, "has no discretion to exercise, but must issue permit unless provided with information indicating disqualification of applicant." [56]
In Georgia, the effect of the 1989 reinterpretation of the concealed weapon permit law was inconclusive. About 11,000 people in the Atlanta area now have permits. [57] The Georgia murder rate fell 16% in the years 1989-1992, while the rest of the U.S. experienced a 1.6% increase in murder rates. This might indicate that the new interpretation of the law acted in a positive way to reduce murder, relative to where it might have otherwise gone.
But we must not draw this conclusion too hastily, because examination of Georgia murder rates for the years 1975-1988 shows a rather dramatic and unobvious variation in the relationship between Georgia and U.S. murder rates. A few more years may provide an opportunity to more clearly evaluate how effective the change in the law was in Georgia. The most cautious conclusion we can draw is that it at least did no harm. A more optimistic conclusion is that it may have reduced murder rates.
Pennsylvania took action in 1989. While not as explicit as Florida's law, or as forcefully worded as Washington's, the Pennsylvania reform put some teeth in the Pennsylvania Constitution's right to keep and bear arms provision. The requirements include that the applicant be 21 or over; have no drug convictions, no convictions for crimes of violence, no prior mental hospital commitments; not be addicted to "marijuana or a stimulant, depressant or narcotic drug"; not be "a habitual drunkard," convicted of a felony, awaiting trial for a felony; an illegal alien; not be dishonorably discharged from the U.S. military, or a fugitive from justice. Non-residents are eligible for a concealed weapon permit on the same basis as residents, except that the statute requires that they must currently possess an equivalent permit in their home state, provided such permits exist.
Some discretionary authority remains, however. A sheriff can refuse a permit to "an individual whose character and reputation is such that the individual would be likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety." While the phrase is not defined anywhere in the statute, the law does state:
Accordingly, the burden of proof seems to fall on the sheriff to show good cause for refusing a permit.
One unique feature of the Pennsylvania law is that in "a city of the first class" (Philadelphia), [59] the chief of police retained the authority to deny a permit unless:
"Suitable individual to be licensed" could mean, in practice, "politician or other person with political influence." Nonetheless, permits issued elsewhere in Pennsylvania are valid in Philadelphia. [61]
As of January 1992, there were 362,142 carry licenses issued in the state, meaning that about 3% of Pennsylvanians had a permit. [62]
Pennsylvania is especially interesting, primarily because Philadelphia is expressly exempted from the requirement to issue concealed weapon permits (though permits issued elsewhere in the state are good in Philadelphia). The graph for Pennsylvania shows no obvious difference after adoption of the new permit law. For two years (1989 and 1990) the murder rate percentage rose; in 1991, the murder rate percentage declined, then returned in 1992 to near the 1989-90 level.
But when we plot murder rates for Philadelphia by itself, or for the rest of the state, the results are puzzling. For Philadelphia, there was a small rise in murder rates in 1990, followed by declines in 1991 and 1992 to below the 1989 level. For the rest of the state, there was a slight decline in 1989, and slight increases in 1990 and 1991, leveling off in 1992, roughly paralleling what happened to murder rates in the U.S. outside of Pennsylvania. Since murder rates in the rest of Pennsylvania are very low, and the need to carry a concealed weapon is doubtless rare, the concealed weapon permit law may not have made much practical difference in those areas.
Yet the 1991-92 decline in Philadelphia, if it continues, suggests some benefit from the increased number of permits being issued elsewhere in the state. Does the knowledge that people walking the streets of Philadelphia might be from other Pennsylvania cities, where permits are readily issued, act as some sort of restraint on Philadelphia criminals? Has there been a dramatic increase in Philadelphia residents who have taken up residence elsewhere (at least from a legal standpoint) in order to obtain permits? Or is this just another random variation? Only time will tell, but at a minimum, the easy availability of permits does not seem to have made Pennsylvania a more dangerous state.
In 1989, Oregon also adopted a non-discretionary policy for issuance of handgun permits. The requirements were similar, though not identical to those we have already seen. The applicant must be over 21; must be a resident of the county where the application is made; must have no outstanding arrest warrants; must be "not free on any form of pretrial release"; must have demonstrated competence through any of a number of firearm safety classes; must have no felony convictions; must have no misdemeanor convictions or mental hospital commitments in the preceding four years; and must not be prohibited by a court from owning a firearm for mental illness. [63]
An escape clause similar to Pennsylvania's is contained in the Oregon statutes, allowing the sheriff to deny a permit:
The escape clause handles the case where the applicant has a history of wandering the streets shouting threats at Martians or pink elephants, or getting into bar fights, but has so far managed to avoid conviction or mental hospital commitment. Yet the language is sufficiently narrowly drawn that a sheriff would need a "pattern" of behavior to refuse a permit. If the sheriff simply refused an applicant based on a single such incident, it would doubtless lead to appeal to the courts, where the sheriff would be liable for the filing fees, if the applicant were to win his appeal. [65]
A unique provision requires the Oregon State Police to determine if any other states had substantially comparable requirements for issuance of a permit. If any such comparable state laws were found, permits from that state would be recognized as valid in Oregon. [66] To date, the Oregon State Police have refused to recognize any other state's concealed handgun law as substantially comparable.
In Oregon, murder rates were already on the decline, both relative to the U.S. rate, and compared to the 1986 state peak, when the new law was passed. As a result, it would be unrealistic to give the new law all the credit for the continuing sharp decline in murder in 1990. In addition, while murder rate percentages in 1991 and 1992 rebounded, examination of the murder rates chart shows that this is more an artifact of the sharp decline in the U.S. murder rate in 1992, rather than because of a dramatic increase in the Oregon murder rate. Indeed, the Oregon murder rate in 1992 was on a par with the rate in 1989 when the new law was passed--and well below the rate for the three years before the new law.
In Oregon, over 87,000 citizens--about 2% of the adult population--now have a carry permit. Oregon police estimate that 25% of permit applicants are female. [67] Of the 87,390 Oregonians who have been issued permits, 194 (less than one-half of one percent) have had their licenses revoked; revocations have been based on offenses such as shoplifting or assault. No license holder has been convicted of a crime involving a gun. Captain F. Sherwood Stillman, coordinator of the statewide licensing program, observed that, "The people who get these concealed handgun licenses are not people we should be concerned about having firearms; these are law-abiding citizens." [68]
West Virginia's non-discretionary permit system was adopted as the result of the voters adding a right to keep and bear arms provision to the state constitution in 1986. [69] A person charged with carrying a concealed weapon in violation of a state statute challenged the law on the grounds that it violated the West Virginia Constitution's right to keep and bear arms, because the law gave too much discretion to local government to deny permits. The West Virginia Supreme Court agreed. [70]
In response, the West Virginia legislature wrote a new concealed weapon permit law that required U.S. citizenship; residence in the county where application was made; age 18 or over; not being a drug addict; having no conviction of a felony or violent crime involving a deadly weapon; being "physically and mentally competent to carry such a weapon;" and at least for first time applicants, completion of one of a number of firearms safety classes. [71]
The courts showed some recalcitrance in applying the new law, and applicants who were denied permits appealed. In Application of Metheney (W.Va. 1990), the West Virginia Supreme Court made it clear that while a judge could determine whether the applicant's purpose was actually "defense of self, family, home or state, or other lawful purpose," if the evidence showed such to be the case, the judge was obligated to issue a permit. [72]
In West Virginia, the Department of Public Safety maintains information on concealed weapon permits, but the filing system "is manual at this time, therefore, it would be virtually impossible to compile the data requested." [73]
In West Virginia, a small state where even a single criminal can make an enormous difference in a state's murder rate, the results are inconclusive. The year the new law was passed, there was a dramatic increase in West Virginia murder rates, followed by declines in 1990 and 1991, and a rise in 1992. However, the number of murders in 1989 was 121; in 1990, 102; in 1991, 111; in 1992, 115. The state is so small that even the actions of one sociopath can dramatically alter a particular year's murder totals.
Idaho's change to a non-discretionary permit system is more complex than most of the other states we have examined. As originally adopted in 1990, the language of the first paragraph was nearly identical to Washington's statute, even to the extent of asserting, "The citizen's constitutional right to bear arms shall not be denied him, unless..." [74] Like the Washington statute, it provided for permits for both residents and non-residents. (The provision for non-resident permits was removed, effective July 1, 1991. [75] An amendment effective April 2, 1991, adjusted the formula used for allocating the license fee to the various parts of the government.)
Even with the subsequent amendments, the Idaho statute is somewhere between the Washington and Oregon statutes in its liberality. It denies a permit to non-residents; anyone ineligible to own a firearm under state or federal law; anyone awaiting trial on, or convicted of a felony; fugitives from justice; drug addicts; those lacking "mental capacity" as defined by Idaho law; the mentally ill, gravely disabled, or incapacitated, as defined by Idaho law; those dishonorably discharged from the U.S. military; anyone convicted of a violent misdemeanor in the last three years; or illegal aliens.
There is some discretion in the Idaho statute--but in such a limited way that it provides no real obstacle to those over 21. While the first part of the statute declares those under 21 are ineligible for a permit, a later part provides that a sheriff may issue a license to carry concealed to an applicant between 18 and 21 if the sheriff feels that good cause exists. For an applicant over 21, who is not in one of the prohibited categories listed above, the only discretionary authority available to the sheriff is that, "the sheriff may require the applicant to demonstrate familiarity with a firearm by any of the following, provided the applicant may select which one..." The list of available firearms safety classes is sufficiently broad, including any NRA firearms safety, training, or hunter education course, that even if a sheriff exercises his discretion in requiring one of these courses, it provides little obstacle to obtaining a permit. [76]
Idaho's murder rate is subject to major variations from year to year, as is typical of states with small populations. In the late 1970s, the Idaho murder rate was as high as 63% of the rate for the rest of the nation. In the period 1980-1989, under the old, discretionary concealed handgun permit law, Idaho's murder percentage rate had declined, staying in the range 28% to 48%. In the two years since, the murder rate continued to decline, reaching 19% of the U.S. murder rate in 1991--another statistical fluke of the low population?
The first year murder decline, in 1990, could just be another result of the small population causing a random fall in murder rates, as the previous years show. But when the murder percentage rate fell again in 1991, it might cause one to suspect that progress is being made. The 1992 results, however, suggest random variation was the explanation for the 1990 and 1991 declines.
In 1991, Montana adopted a statute similar to Idaho's. Whereas the old Montana law gave judges discretionary authority to issue concealed weapon permits as they saw fit, the new statute was unambiguous and non-discretionary:
Unlike the Idaho statute, an applicant must be a resident for at least six months, at least 18 years old, and have a state-issued picture identification card of some sort. The prohibited categories are similar to the other states: those ineligible under state or federal law to possess a firearm; those convicted of a felony; outstanding arrest warrant; drug addict (including such determinations in civil proceedings); "mentally ill, mentally defective, or mentally disabled"; dishonorably discharged from the U.S. military; or convicted in the last five years [78] of violating Montana's statutes that prohibit carrying a concealed weapon while under the influence, or in a prohibited place, such as a government building, bank, or bar. [79]
The same escape clause exists as in the Idaho and Oregon statutes, which allows a sheriff to deny a permit to an applicant based on "reasonable cause" for concern about "the peace and good order of the community..." Where the Idaho statute allows the sheriff to require proof of firearms competence at his discretion, the Montana statute requires completion of any of a number of firearms safety courses, though it is much more careful to avoid naming the NRA, instead referring to "[A]n organization that uses instructors certified by a national firearms association." The Montana statute also refers to the carrying of concealed weapons as "this privilege," and not as a right, unlike the Idaho law. [80]
Montana's new law was adopted in 1991. By the end of 1993, there were 1,369 residents with carry permits. [81] Like Idaho, Montana has a very "notchy" murder percentage rate, and for the same reason as Idaho: very few people. Therefore, we should not attach too much significance to the apparent first year's murder reduction, especially since it followed 1990, a year with an unusually high murder rate percentage. But it is interesting that the 1991 Montana murder rate percentage was the lowest since 1975, and 1992's murder rate percentage is still near the bottom of the period 1975-91. (The comments about declining U.S. murder rates in 1992 and Idaho's murder rate percentage rise apply here as well.) Only time will provide us evidence as to the effects of the Montana concealed handgun permit law.
Mississippi adopted a non-discretionary concealed handgun law effective July 1, 1991. The requirements for obtaining a license included: resident of the state twelve months or more; 21 years old; no "physical infirmity which prevents the safe handling of a pistol or revolver;" no felony conviction in the United States; no drug abuse problem (as indicated by commitment to a treatment facility or conviction within the preceding three years); no mental hospital commitments in the last five years; "not been adjudicated mentally incompetent"; or be a fugitive from justice. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety's discretion in issuing a permit was limited to one area only: if a person had been convicted of "one or more crimes of violence constituting a misdemeanor" in the preceding three years, it was not required to issue a permit, but could issue one if it wanted to do so.
The permit is valid for four years, and the application fee is $100. The renewal fee is $50. Unlike many of the other non-discretionary permit laws, Mississippi's law includes a long list of places where this permit is not valid: police stations, courthouses, public parks, bars, schools, and the Mississippi Legislature. [82]
In Mississippi, the Department of Public Safety had issued at least 7,000 permits as of October 27, 1993. [83] That means that 0.27% of the total population of the state has obtained a permit in a little over two years of the new law. Like Montana, Mississippi's experience with non- discretionary concealed handgun permit laws is too recent meaningfully to judge the results. At least we can conclude that the first year and half of the new law did nothing to dramatically raise the murder rate.
Wyoming's concealed handgun law before 1994 was somewhat different from most other states. Each county's sheriff issued permits, at his sole discretion, but such permits were often not recognized in other counties. As State Senator Mark Harris explained the problem to one of the authors (Cramer) in a phone conversation in April of 1994, "I tried to get permits from all the sheriffs along the Interstate from my home to Cheyenne [where the Wyoming Legislature meets] and I couldn't." As a result, Senator Harris introduced legislation to reform the existing concealed weapon law.
The usual provisions appear: applicants must be a resident of Wyoming for at least six months; at least 21 years old; "not suffer from a physical infirmity which prevents the safe handling of a firearm;" "not ineligible to possess a firearm" under federal law; no drug or alcohol abuse history; and no mental illness history. The applicant is required to demonstrate "familiarity with a firearm," and a wide variety of courses are listed as acceptable methods of doing so. The permits are to be issued by the Attorney General's office. The only discretion in issuance of permits is that applicants may be rejected for pleading guilty or no contest to any misdemeanor crime of violence in the preceding three years.
Like many of the other states, a permit may be denied if the sheriff of the applicant's residence county believes "that the applicant has been or is reasonably likely to be a danger to himself or others, or to the community at large as a result of the applicant's mental or psychological state, as demonstrated by a past pattern or practice of behavior..." Also like Idaho, permits may be issued to applicants between 18 and 21 at the recommendation of the applicant's sheriff.
The application fee is $50 plus actual fingerprinting costs, and the permit is good for five years. The permit must be issued or denied within 60 days of application.
Perhaps reflective of Wyoming's experience with permits only good in the county of issuance, the Wyoming law recognizes permits issued in other states, as long as they are issued by "a state agency." It is not clear whether permits issued under the authority of a state law, even if issued by a county sheriff, would qualify under this provision. [84]
Arizona has long allowed open carry of handguns, but did not have even a discretionary permit system for concealed carry. In some counties, the politically well connected were made special deputy sheriffs in order to get around this problem.
In April of 1994, a statute originally intended to prohibit the carrying of guns by minors was amended to create a non-discretionary concealed weapon permit system for adults. The new law requires the Department of Public Safety to issue a permit to anyone who is a resident of the state; at least 21 years old; not under indictment for, and not convicted of a felony; not mentally ill or "adjudicated mentally incompetent or committed to a mental institution"; "not unlawfully present in the United States"; and who has completed a firearms safety training program approved by the Department of Public Safety.
Unlike many of the other state laws requiring safety training as a condition of permit issuance, Arizona specifies what such training must include. The training must deal with "the legal issues relating to the use of deadly force" along with the safe handling and maintenance of weapons.
Permits must be issued or denied within 60 days. The permit is good for four years. Unlike the other state laws we have looked at, the application fee is not specified in the statute, and is to be "determined by the Director of Public Safety." There is no provision for non-residents to apply for a permit, nor does this statute recognize out of state permits. [85] (Non-residents remain able to carry openly without need for a permit under Arizona law.)
In May 1994, Tennessee passed a concealed handgun permit law that, while not as strong as some of the other laws we have considered, certainly is non-discretionary. The revised version of Tennessee Code sec.39-17-1315 was changed from, "the sheriff may issue such a permit..." to "The sheriff shall issue such a permit..." Unlike some of the other laws we have considered, the law does not explicitly prohibit convicted felons, but does allow the sheriff to refuse to issue a permit if, "in the sheriff's opinion, [the applicant] has a history of instability or physical infirmity," or "poses a likelihood of risk to the public..."
The existing requirements for applicants to complete a training course in firearms, and to have liability insurance or surety bond of at least $50,000, were maintained. Tennessee is the only carry reform state to have such a requirement, analogous to the public liability insurance requirement that most states have for driving a car on public roads. [86]
Like Arizona and Wyoming, Alaska has long allowed the open carry of handguns. In 1994, Alaska passed a concealed handgun permit law that at first glance seems quite similar to the other laws we have examined--but there are some surprising differences. Nonetheless, it is still a non-discretionary permit law.
The qualifications are quite similar to the other statutes we have examined. The applicant must be 21 years of age or older; "eligible to own or possess a firearm under the laws of this state and under federal law;" not convicted or under indictment for a felony; not convicted of any of a number of misdemeanors within the last five years, or currently under indictment for any of those misdemeanors; "is not now suffering, and has not within the five years immediately preceding the application suffered" from mental illness; not adjudicated "mentally incapacitated"; and a resident of Alaska. Anyone who was currently in a court-ordered drug or alcohol program is also prohibited, as well as anyone in such a program in the last three years. [87]
Like many of the other states, Alaska's law requires a demonstration of competence with a handgun. Unlike the other states, however, the certificate of competence must specify the "action type and caliber of handgun or handguns" with which the applicant has demonstrated competence. A permit holder may carry a lesser caliber gun of the same action type, but not a different action type.
Like Arizona, Alaska specifies considerable detail about the content of the firearms safety course, including knowledge of "Alaska law relating to firearms and the use of deadly force." Unlike all the other states we have examined, a permit holder must demonstrate competence not only when he applies for a permit, but also in the twelve months immediately before he renews his permit. [88]
The application fee is to be based on the actual costs to process the application fee, but not to exceed $125 for original application, and $60 for renewal. [89] Permits are valid for five years. Permits must be issued or denied within 15 days of the FBI providing background check information, and the background check request to the FBI must be made within five days of receipt of the application. [90]
Permits are not valid in a number of places that other states also restrict: jails, police stations, courthouses, and airline terminals. But many places that other states felt no need to restrict are prohibited for concealed carry in Alaska: school grounds, "a building housing only state or federal offices or the offices of a political subdivision of the state"; "a vessel of the Alaska marine highway system;" "a facility providing services to victims of domestic violence or sexual assault;" banks, and residences, businesses, or charitable organizations that have posted a sign prohibiting concealed carry. [91]
Most interesting of all, however, is that cities have the authority to prohibit concealed carry by permitees. To do so, however, at least 10% of the voters (as counted at the last regular election) must petition the city to put the matter on the next special election ballot, and a majority must vote to prohibit concealed carry. [92]
In signing the law, Governor Hickel explained that the decisive factor was the women who called his office: "Those that impressed me the most were the women who called and said they worked late and had to cross dark parking lots, and why couldn't they carry a concealed gun?" [93]
This statute certainly shows less trust of the people than many of the other laws we have examined. Perhaps the best example of this concern is the sort of handguns that may be carried concealed. Derringers are not allowed, and neither are "miniature handguns," defined as handguns that lack a trigger guard and have a barrel length of 3.5" or less. [94] Nearly every other state leaves it to the discretion of the permit holder to decide what sort of handgun to carry for self-defense. Alaska's requirement that carry guns have trigger guards, which reduce the risk of accidental discharge, does not appear entirely unreasonable; on the other hand, we know of no instance of an accidental discharge involving a derringer or other gun without a trigger guard in the states which do not specify which type of gun may be carried.
Finally, two non-American jurisdictions have changed their handgun carry laws recently, although we do not have data on which to draw any conclusions about the results of the new laws. Citizens of Lithuania and Estonia are now allowed to own and carry handguns for protection. The laws were enacted in response to the rising crime rates that characterize all of the former Soviet republics. [95]
In the states discussed above, the dire warnings of the gun control lobbies were not realized. It should not be surprising that the carry laws appear not to have a noticeable impact on the homicide rate in most states (Florida, perhaps, excepted). To begin with, it is important to notice that in most of the states studied, the general rise and fall of murder rates before the new laws took effect roughly approximated the rate in the rest of the country. This suggests that, in general, the causes of changes in murder rates are largely determined nationally.
Some criminologists have suggested that the state of the economy has a significant impact on murder rates, and that the mass media's glorification of violence plays some significant role in promoting violence. [96] Almost all criminologists agree that demographics play a crucial role in crime rates; as the percentage of the population in the late teens and early twenties increases, so will the murder, since males in this age group are disproportionately involved in violent crime. (About 50% of murderers are under 25.) [97]
It is also important to recognize the dramatic effects that a small number of murderers can have in some of the smaller states from year to year. The murder rates of West Virginia, Idaho, and Montana, are all dramatically variable from year to year, because the populations are small, and one serious criminal can dramatically raise the murder rate one year, followed by a dramatic drop when he is caught or moves on. As a result, the experience of the larger states is more useful for judging the effects of the non- discretionary issuance laws.
Are there any conclusions to be drawn here? In Florida, carry reform appears to have done some good, and perhaps saved a number of lives, although much more detailed statistical analysis would be required to isolate with certainty the carry reform law as a factor in the homicide rate decline. In Virginia, where some judges subverted the clear intent of the legislature, the reform law appears to have not been effective. In Georgia, where the change resulted from an Attorney General's reinterpretation of the law, the evidence suggests that carry reform perhaps might have reduced murder rates. In West Virginia, the results are inconclusive. In Oregon, the new law took effect with murder rates already in decline, and it is impossible to determine whether or how much the new law contributed. In Pennsylvania, legal reform might, arguably, have done some good in Philadelphia, and apparently done no harm outside of Philadelphia. In Idaho, Montana, and Mississippi, the results are inconclusive.
In several of the states, the positive results would seem to have been most dramatic the year of adoption, with results tapering off afterwards. This may be a result of publicity about the law discouraging criminals, or the result of publicity encouraging a short burst of law-abiding citizens applying for permits.
In neither large or small states do we see evidence of obvious long-term increases in murder rates after passage of these laws. This is the most significant, certain conclusion that can be drawn from the data presented above. The experience of the carry reform states plainly shows that homicide rates will not increase as a result of crimes committed by persons with carry permits. Carry reform legislation may or may not reduce the homicide rate, but reform legislation clearly does not raise the homicide rate.
In addition to the state-by-state research discussed above, there have been two other research projects looking at the impact of concealed carry laws. One study (performed by author Cramer) looked at comparative data from California counties. The other study, a master's thesis at a public policy school, analyzed crime trends in six states. We turn first to the California data.
To carry a concealed firearm in California requires a permit. [98] Open carry of a loaded firearm is prohibited in cities and the unincorporated parts of many of the more populated counties. [99] Even in those unincorporated areas where it is legal to openly carry a loaded firearm, social pressure or police harassment can make it impractical to carry a gun for self-defense.
CCWs are issued at the discretion of the chief of police of a city in the county, or sheriff of the county, in which the applicant resides. As long as the applicant passes the background check provided by the California Dept. of Justice, a chief of police or sheriff may issue a permit. [100] For many years, some police chiefs and sheriffs have used this discretion to issue CCWs infrequently, or only to protect businesses. The guidelines used by Sonoma County's police chiefs and sheriff, for example, consider protection of business assets as one of the approval criteria. The only provision for self-defense is described as "Specific circumstances that are articulated which show an overwhelming need to have a weapon available for personal protection," which leaves out the vast majority of law-abiding adults.
One of the arguments frequently presented for why CCWs should be issued infrequently is that carried guns will seldom be used defensively, but will be used "to shoot your loved ones, your neighbors, people you get into arguments with," in the words of one California bureaucrat explaining his refusal to issue permits.
To test whether different government approaches to CCW permits affect the crime rate, the ideal would be to compare two counties with comparable policing, laws, and demographics, with the only difference being that one county issued CCWs readily, and the other did not issue them at all. Such a perfect test case does not exist; but what we do have is an enormous variation in CCW issuance rates in California. In some counties, they are nearly unobtainable; in other counties, more than 3% of the total population (not just the adult population) have such permits. Is there any evidence to support the notion that where CCWs are easily obtained, that guns are more likely to be used criminally?
Before we look at the data, let us consider the circumstances in which carrying a handgun for self-defense in public might be useful. The majority of murders in the United States are unlikely to be prevented by wider issuance of such permits. Domestic disturbances turned lethal usually do not take place on the streets, except as spillover from a fight inside a private dwelling. The homicidal attacks which carrying a gun in public has the most hope of making a difference are those committed in the course of some other public felony, such as robbery, burglary, rape, or kidnapping.
Of the 18,269 murders committed nationally in 1988, about 19% were "felony type" (committed in the course of some other felony, such as robbery, burglary, rape, or kidnapping). [101] Another 1% were "suspected felony type"; 27% were classed as "Unable to determine"--the police either do not know who did it, or the suspect or witnesses could not or would not explain it. Some of the remaining murders ("Romantic triangle," "Argument over money or property," "Other arguments," "Miscellaneous non-felony type") might be preventable by wider issuance of CCWs, to the extent that they involved stalking-type situations or confronations in public areas. But to the extent that murders involved fights between people who lived in the same household, or who met in other private circumstances, laws relating to carrying of concealed weapons would have little impact.
Let us presume that more civilians carrying handguns for self-defense will not reduce the non-felony murder rate--that all the non-felony murders involve fights inside a home, or other circumstances where handgun carrying would be irrelevant.. Let us only consider the 20% of murders that are felony or suspected felony murders. Some felony murders are simply not preventable by armed citizens because of the weapons used; arson, for example, was the method for 258 of the murders committed nationally in 1988. Similarly, murders committed with poison, explosives, and narcotics would seem outside the realm of an armed defense solution. But for the 97% of felony murders using direct physical force (guns, knives, clubs, bare hands, strangulation) [102] , a handgun carried on the person at least has the potential to save the victim.
As with murder, the majority of rapes do not involve attacks by total strangers outside the home. Concealed weapons permits are unlikely to have much of an impact on teenagers raped in their home by their uncle, or college students victimized by date rape. Carrying of concealed weapons could have an impact in deterring on rapists who attack strangers in parking lots and other public spaces. Of course to the extent that men obtain concealed carry permits in greater numbers than women (either as a result of discrimination or choice), then the impact on rape would be reduced.
The crime which a concealed handgun carried on public streets has the greatest potential to prevent is robbery, and the murders which result from a robbery. Only 33.4% of reported robberies involve the use of a firearm, so an armed potential victim stands an excellent chance of defending himself successfully in the two-thirds of robberies with weapons inferior to a gun, or with brute force. [103] (A trained citizen could well prevail in a fight with a criminal who had a gun, since few criminals practice with their guns, and many citizens do practice; but the citizen's odds of success are obviously higher when he is better-armed than the attacker.) A significant portion of robberies do take place in public places where the victim's carrying a concealed handgun would be relevant. In western states (including California), 49.7% of robberies in 1988 were described by the FBI Uniform Crime Reports as "Street/highway." [104] [SCOTT WAS HERE]
The final crime to be measured is aggravated assault, a crime which also takes place frequently out of doors. (All domestic violence in California is now classified as aggravated assault, so a large amount takes place indoors as well.) It has long been an article of faith in some circles that the presence of a gun makes a fistfight into a gunfight, and battery into at least attempted murder. Accordingly, if the widespread availability of concealed firearms permits is going to increase the murder rate, one mechanism might be by the escalation of the seriousness of conflicts that begin with an aggravated assault. Conversely, if the widespread carrying of concealed firearms has a general deterrent effect on crime (since criminals do not know which potential victim is carrying a gun), then aggravated assault might be expected to decrease.
The California Dept. of Justice maintains statistics on issuance of CCWs, broken down by the police agency issuing the permit. [105] There are some great surprises here. The City of Los Angeles, for example, with almost 3.5 million people, had no concealed weapons permits outstanding in 1989. (Note: the accompanying table shows concealed weapon permit figures by county, not city--all the permits issued in Los Angeles County in 1989 were issued by either the Los Angeles Sheriff's Dept., or one of the other cities in Los Angeles County.) On the other hand, there were many small cities throughout California with populations less than 10,000, that had dozens of outstanding CCWs.
Since California law allows a person to obtain a CCW from any police chief of the county in which the applicant resides, or the sheriff of that county, and few people restrict their activities to the city in which they live, it makes sense to study CCWs and crime rates on a county by county basis. [106] There are 58 counties in California. We have divided these counties into three groups: those counties where fewer than one-tenth of 1% of the population have CCWs; those counties where .1% to 1% of the population have CCWs; and those counties where more than 1% of the population have CCWs. Note that "population" here means everyone living in the county, including large numbers of people who are ineligible for CCWs because of age, criminal history, or mental illness.
There are 19 counties in the first group, predominantly urban, or urban dominated, where the number of CCWs is less than one-tenth of 1% of the total population. In some of these counties, a criminal has almost no risk of attacking a legally armed civilian on the street. In San Francisco, there are 1.5 CCWs per 100,000 people; in Los Angeles County, there are less than 5 CCWs per 100,000 people. Stated another way, the following events are about equally likely to occur:
A criminal in Los Angeles or San Francisco can completely ignore the risks of attacking someone who is legally carrying a gun--it is more probable that the criminal will attack an off-duty or plainclothes police officer than a legally armed civilian. Since this first group of counties contains five-sixths of the population of the state, the crime rates in these counties largely determine the statewide averages.
In the second group are 22 counties, where between .1% and 1% of the population held a CCW in 1989. These are primarily rural counties, though some, like Fresno and Sonoma Counties, have at least one medium-sized city. The major violent felony rates in this group are below the statewide average, though rape is barely so. In fact, the murder rate is lowest in the second group of counties, though it's not much lower than the third group.
In the third group are 17 counties where more than 1% of the population has been issued a CCW. These are predominately rural counties, with a few small cities. Most of these counties have so few people that crime rates per 100,000 people can be somewhat misleading, since a single murder can make a county of 3,600 people appear artificially dangerous; some of these counties went all of 1989 without a murder. In 1989, this group had the lowest rates for rape, aggravated assault, and robbery--and murder rates were still less than 69% of the statewide average. This may be a statistical fluke, since in 1988, this third group of counties had the lowest murder rate. To give some idea of the way that small sample sizes can affect results, if there had been seven fewer murders in 1989 in these 17 counties, the third group would have had the lowest crime rates in all categories of violent crime. Further, more than half the murders committed in the third group are in two counties (Madera and Yuba) with the lowest CCW issuance rates in this group.
Now look at Table 2. Our theoretical analysis suggested that more CCWs should be most effective at preventing robbery--and the liberal issuance counties' robbery rates are only 15% of the statewide average. We also suspected that rape would be relatively unaffected by more CCWs --and while rape rates are lower than the statewide average, the difference is not dramatic. Finally, murder and aggravated assault rates are about one-third below the statewide average, even with all those guns ready to be drawn.
Table 1: California Concealed Weapons Permits & Violent Crime Rates
CCW's per Aggravated Homicide Rape Robbery
100,000 Assault
______________________________________________________________
Highly 28.3 621.5 11.7 41.5 372.7
restrictive
counties
Moderately 437.5 449.9 6.5 40.4 124.4
restrictive
counties
Non- 1,736.5 414.2 7.5 31.3 48.5
restrictive
counties
California 122.5 593.5 10.9 41.1 331.8
total
Table 2: California County Crime Rates as a Percentage of
Statewide Averages
County Permits per Aggravated Homicide Rape Robbery Group 100,000 Assault ______________________________________________________________ Highly less than 105% 107% 101% 112% restrictive 100 counties Moderately 100 to 76% 60% 98% 38% restrictive 1,000 counties Non- greater 70% 69% 76% 15% restrictive than counties 100,000
It would, of course, be foolish to assert that the large percentage of outstanding CCWs in the third group of counties is the reason for the lower rates for aggravated assault, robbery, and rape. These are rural counties, with dramatically different demographics than the urban counties in California. Nonetheless, it may be a reason. So why are the aggravated assault rates so low in these counties where, it seems, you might have trouble walking down the street without passing an armed civilian? Perhaps the conventional wisdom--that guns will be used in a fight--is simply wrong. Perhaps the presence of a gun causes a great many aggressors to simply withdraw from a fight, since the risk of death is so obvious. These are all suppositions, however. What is clear is that even with all those people authorized to carry guns, the rates for murder, rape, aggravated assault, and most dramatically, robbery, are lower than the statewide average.
Here we have examples of counties where the percentage of the population licensed to carry a gun starts to approach the percentage of the population that watches the Phil Donahue show--yet the murder rate remains quite low. [109] If more CCWs are really a threat to public safety, and the number of CCWs outstanding in this third group of counties is so large, the other factors that determine murder and aggravated assault rates must be truly enormous to so completely overwhelm the effects of all those CCWs.
In sum, the comparative data from California counties suggest, but do not prove, that making concealed carry permits available to licensed, trained citizens may reduce the robbery rate, and perhaps the rates for other violent crimes. The data are completely inconsistent with the hypothesis that CCW issuance will lead to more murders or other crimes.
A different approach was taken by Brian Withrow, a master's degree candidate at Southwest Texas State University. [110] Withrow looked at three states which had implemented carry reform: Florida, Pennsylvania, and Oregon. He then paired each state with the closest matching state that had similar demographics, but did not have carry reform. Florida was paired with Texas, Pennsylvania with Illinois, and Oregon with Arizona. As Withrow acknowledged, no two states are exactly similar, and the attempts to match any pair of states suffers from this limitation.
Withrow then examined each pair of states to test for the impact of carry reform laws. If carry reform laws were effective in producing a statistically noticeable reduction in the crime rate, then a state which enacted carry reform would be expected to show an improving trend (relative to a non-reform) state, in various crime categories. For example, if Pennsylvania (pre-reform) and Illinois (no reform) had similar rape rates in the years before concealed carry reform was enacted in Pennsylvania, but after Pennsylvania reformed its carry law, the Pennsylvania rape rate remained stable while the Illinois rate rose sharply, the result would be consistent with the hypothesis that concealed carry reduces the rape rate.
The results of Withrow study are as follows:
Table 3: Support for hypothesis that concealed carry reform reduces crime
State Murder Aggravated Rape Robbery Pairs Assault ______________________________________________________________ Florida/ supports weakly does not weakly Texas supports support supports Pennsylvania/ supports weakly does not weakly Illinois supports support supports Oregon/ does not supports does not does not Arizona support support support
The Withrow research does suggest that concealed carry reform can save lives. The first two pairs (Florida/Texas) and Pennsylvania/Illinois are good test cases. Pre-reform, all four states had strong laws against carrying firearms; after the reform laws were enacted, the Florida and Pennsylvania systems worked so that large numbers of citizens were able to acquire permits. (Unlike in Virginia, where some local officials refuse to implement the state's "shall issue" system.)
The Oregon/Arizona pair, however, is poorly chosen. Although Arizona did not have a concealed carry "shall issue" law at the time of the Withrow study (a "shall issue" law was enacted in 1994), Arizona has always allowed adults to carry an unconcealed handgun without even the need for a permit. Unlike in some other states where open carry is ostensibly legal (such as Colorado and North Carolina), open carry in Arizona has always been tolerated by the police, and is common, even in downtown Phoenix. Accordingly, the Oregon/Arizona test compares a state with limited concealed carry that moved to widespread concealed carry (Oregon) with a state that has always had limitless open carry (Arizona). Unlike the Florida/Texas and Pennsylvania/Illinois pairs, the Oregon/Arizona pair does not tell us about a state with restricted carry that changed its policy (Florida and Pennsylvania) versus a state which retained restrictive policy (Texas and Illinois). Thus, it is appropriate to discard the Oregon/Arizona results as not providing worthwhile information about the contrast between a restrictive and a "shall issue" carry policy.
Significantly, when we look at the results of the Florida/Texas and the Pennsylvania/Illinois trends, the results are identical. There is strong support for the hypothesis that concealed carry reform reduces murder; weak support for reduction in aggravated assault and in robbery; and no support for a statistically noticeable reduction in rape.
Of all the states studied previously (in the state-by-state homicide trends), it was Florida, a large state with a major homicide problem, that was the only state to show a major change in its homicide rate after the enactment of concealed carry. The Withrow data reinforces the tentative conclusion suggested by the raw Florida data: in a large state with a serious crime problem, concealed carry reform may have a significant life-saving effect.
It is also possible, suggests Withrow's research, that carry reform could have a small but statistically significant effect in reducing aggravated assault and robbery.
In sum, this Paper has looked at three different approaches studying the effects of concealed carry reform on crime rates: a comparison of state homicide trends with national trends, a comparison of crime rates among different counties with different policies in California, and a comparison of before and after crime rates in Florida versus Texas, and in Pennsylvania and Illinois.
In all three studies, the results are consistent. Concealed carry reform appears to reduce murder rates, at least in large, high-crime states. Concealed carry reform may reduce aggravated assault and robbery rates. Perhaps most significantly, there is simply no evidence that concealed carry reform will cause a net increase in the homicide rate, or in any other crime rate. The fact that, despite the evidence of carry reform in nearly a third of American states, the gun control lobbies persist in predicting a major increase in homicide whenever concealed carry reform is introduced must be attributed to the triumph of (ghoulish) hope over experience.
The evidence presented thus far cannot guarantee that carry reform will significantly reduce a state's homicide rate. So why change the laws if they are not clearly going to reduce murder rates? Conversely, the question might be asked, if carry reform does not do any harm, why not allow law-abiding citizens, who have passed a background check for criminal behavior and mental stability, to have the means to defend themselves most effectively? If there is no clear threat to the public safety, and if examples like Florida suggest that in some instances, carry reform has the potential to contribute to public safety, why not allow law- abiding citizens to make their own choice about carrying?
While carry reform is no panacea for crime, it should also be remembered that the failure to enact carry reform can have deadly consequences, as the next section details.
In October 1991 in Killeen, Texas, a psychopath named George Hennard rammed his pickup truck through the plate glass window of Luby's cafeteria. Using a pair of ordinary pistols, he murdered 23 people in 10 minutes, stopping only when the police arrived.
Dr. Suzanna Gratia, a cafeteria patron, had a gun in her car, but, in conformity to Texas law, the gun was not carried on her person; Texas, despite its Wild West image, was the first state in the nation to completely prohibit the carrying of handguns. [111] Carry reform legislation had almost passed the legislature, but had been stopped in the House Calendars Committee by the gun control lobby.
A few months later, Dr. Gratia testified to the Missouri Legislature (concerning a concealed handgun permit law being considered in that state) that if she had been carrying her gun, she could have shot at Hennard:
Hennard reloaded five times, and had to throw away one pistol because it jammed, so there was plenty of opportunity for someone to fire at him.
Even if Dr. Gratia had not killed or wounded Hennard, he would have had to dodge hostile gunfire, and would not have been able methodically to finish off his victims as they lay wounded on the floor. The hypothetical risks of a stray bullet from Dr. Gratia would have been tiny compared to the actual risks of Hennard not facing any resistance. But because of the restrictive Texas law, Dr. Gratia was not carrying a gun, and could not take a shot at Hennard. Instead, she watched him murder both her parents.
Two months later, a pair of criminals with stolen pistols herded 20 customers and employees into the walk-in refrigerator of a Shoney's restaurant in Anniston, Alabama. Hiding under a table in the restaurant was Thomas Glenn Terry, armed with the .45 semi-automatic pistol he carried legally under Alabama law. One of the robbers discovered Terry, but Terry killed him with five shots in the chest. The second robber, who had been holding the manager hostage, shot at Terry and grazed him. Terry returned fire, and critically wounded the robber. [113]
Twenty-three people died in Killeen, Texas, where carrying a gun for self-defense was illegal. Twenty lives were saved, and only the two criminals died in Anniston, Alabama, where self-defense permits are legal. [114]
After the Luby's incident, carry reform was again debated in the Texas legislature. Gun control advocates insisted that public policy should not be based on isolated massacres (an ironic reversal of the control advocates' frequent efforts to use massacres as springboards for various gun prohibition measures). It was also suggested that, while Dr. Gratia might have saved lives with her gun, more lives would be lost in the long run because of mistakes made by angry or incompetent citizens carrying guns. As the research above has detailed, such a prediction has no factual support.
Despite the sometimes-hysterical claims of the gun prohibition lobbies, mass murders in public places are rare. But the Shoney's in Alabama was not the only place where an armed citizen with a gun stopped a massacre in progress. In 1986, a Cuban refugee with a machete went on a rampage on the Staten Island Ferry; he killed two people and wounded nine others, but was subdued by a retired police officer at gunpoint. [115] In Las Vegas in July 1993, a man with a shotgun screamed, "I'm sick of this, and I'm not going to take it any more," and then opened fire in a state disability insurance office. He jumped into his truck, and began driving wildly through the building. A security guard shot him in the head.
It might be argued that the above two cases are different because they involved a retired police officer, and a security guard. Not every mass-murderer, unfortunately, has the bad luck to pick a crowd that includes a retired police officer or a security guard. If the average citizen, with training and a background check, can use a gun and pose no more danger to society than does a former police officer or a security guard with a gun (and we so demonstrate, below), then expanding the number of licensed, trained people who are allowed to carry firearms will commensurately reduce the carnage of psychotic killers.
In Israel, a permit to own a handgun (which is granted to every law-abiding citizen) is equivalent to a permit to carry a handgun. In April 1984, three terrorists opened fire with automatic rifles and began throwing hand grenades at the busiest intersection in West Jerusalem. As the Los Angeles Times reported, "One of the attackers was killed in a hail of answering fire from the owners and customers of nearby shops." A wild firefight broke out with Israelis and the two remaining terrorists exchanges flurries of bullets until the police arrived and captured the terrorists. Fourteen people were wounded, and it was possible that in the chaos, some of the Israelis were accidentally wounded by "friendly fire." [116] But at the end of the day, no Israelis were dead, but one terrorist was, a superb result compared with what happens when victims are defenseless.
The next day, the surviving terrorists were presented to the media. They explained that they had planned to machine-gun a succession of crowded areas, fleeing before the police arrived. One terrorist complained indignantly that his bosses had not told him that Israeli citizens carry guns. [117]
In November 1993, a vicious racist shot twenty-two unarmed, defenseless victims on the Long Island Railroad. Four months later, a terrorist group, determined to sabotage the new peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians attempted to perpetrate a mass murder of people using public transportation in Israel. The Associated Press reports:
National police spokesman Erich Bar-Chen said today's attacker, who was armed with an Uzi submachine guns, was shot and killed by a civilian and a soldier who were at the bus stop and hitchhiking post used by soldiers. Ashod is 15 miles south of Tel Aviv and 15 miles north of the Gaza Strip. [118]
It seems clear that, at the least, carry permits for licensed, trained citizens will save lives when madmen or terrorists attempt mass murder in public places. Accordingly, opponents of carry licenses must bear the burden of demonstrating that the number of lives lost from the issuance of carry licenses will outweigh the lives saved during attempted massacres. As detailed above, opponents of carry reform cannot carry their burden of proof. There is no evidence to suggest that carry reform will cause any increase in murder, let alone an increase so large as to outweigh the significant number of lives that could be saved by allowing people like Doctor Suzanna Gratia to help protect the public.
In addition to the lives that could be saved by licensed, trained citizens carrying guns, there is a second, important benefit: peace of mind. Many people choose to buy automobiles with passenger-side air bags or other safety features; many people also choose to use the seat belts in a car. It is unlikely, of course, that on any given automobile trip, there will an accident in which the safety belt, or other safety device, in needed; similarly, it is unlikely that a person who goes out in public will be attacked by a criminal on any given day. But even on days when drivers are not struck by other cars, the safety devices confer a genuine benefit, because the drivers feel safer. Likewise,
If women feel safer walking at night because they can carry a firearm, then the firearm makes a tangible contribution to a better society, whether or not a statistically significant drop in the crime rate results.
Of course the increased peace of mind that results from people knowing they will be able to protect themselves would not be beneficial if there was more criminal violence as a result. But as the data presented above indicate, all of the data suggest that allowing licensed, trained citizens to carry firearms for protection will not cause more gun crime.
The use of firearms for lawful self-defense by licensed, trained citizens is sometimes decried as "taking the law into one's hands." In a legal sense, armed use of force for self-defense is not "taking the law into one's hands." Using deadly force or the threat thereof to defend against a violent felony is legal in all 50 states. American law is unanimous that deadly force may be used, if no lesser force will suffice, not merely against attempted murder, but also to thwart violent felonies such as rape. [120] There are many circumstances where exercising the choice to use force for self-defense or defense of another is entirely lawful. Using such force, therefore, cannot be "taking the law into one's hands" any more than exercising other lawful choices, such as signing a contract. Similarly, every American state recognizes, at the least, the right of citizens to arrest a person committing a violent felony in her presence.
When criminals use force, though, they are violating the law, and thereby taking the law into their own hands. When citizens use or threaten force to stop the law-breaking, they are taking the law back from the criminals, and restoring the law to its rightful owners: themselves.
In the concealed carry debate, it is sometimes asserted that carrying or using a gun for protection is immoral, or that "Violence begats violence." For example, author Betty Friedan argues "that lethal violence even in self-defense only engenders more violence." [121]
The implication of Ms. Friedan's remark is that a woman who shoots a homicidal rapist should be condemned for engendering violence, rather than commended for preventing worse violence, that victims of murderous assault should forgo violence, and should instead count on the police to arrest the murderer, post-mortem. Although pacifism has its adherents, the American legal system is not among them. As criminal law scholar Herbert Weschler observed, the right of crime victims to use deadly force is based on what Weschler called the "universal judgment that there is no social interest in preserving the lives of the aggressors at the cost of those of their victims." [122]
The American people overwhelmingly believe that it is legitimate to use deadly force against criminal attack, and that it is moral not just for government employees, but for crime victims to do so. A 1985 Gallup survey asked "If the situation arose, would you use deadly force against another person in self-defense?" Only 13% said "no." (And presumably some of those 13% were expressing their own choice, but would not felonize persons who chose differently.)
After Bernhard Goetz shot four teenagers who were attempting to rob him on a Manhattan subway in 1984, a Newsweek poll asked: "Do you feel that taking the law into one's own hands, often called vigilantism is justified by circumstances?" (The question was phrased in a way that was quite prejudicial to self-defense; "vigilantism" has nothing to do with self-defense, but instead refers to extra- judicial punishment of a suspect by a mob. [123] ) The question was asked in two separate surveys; in one group, 23% said that violence was never justified; in the other survey, 17% so opined. [124]
Plainly then, the very large majority of the American people believe that use of force, including deadly force if necessary, is a legitimate response to dangerous criminal attacks. In a society that respects liberty of conscience, this large majority should not attempt to force its morality of lawful self-defense onto the minority of the population that would prefer to see themselves and their families raped, robbed, and slaughtered rather than to use force. At the same time, the pacifist minority should not attempt to force its morality onto the majority that approves of lawful defensive force.
It is not uncommon, when concealed carry laws are debated before legislative bodies, for representatives of liberal organizations such as the National Council of Churches to show up and announce the "moral" opposition to concealed carry on behalf of "the religious community." But reflexive hostility to the lawful use of force for legitimate defense is hardly the only moral position that may be held by a sincerely religious person. [125]
The Book of Exodus specifically absolves a homeowner who kills a burglar. [126] The Sixth Commandment "Thou shalt not kill" refers to murder only, and does not prohibit the taking of life under any circumstances; notably, the law of Sinai specifically requires capital punishment for a large number of offenses. [127] A little bit earlier in the Bible, Abram, the father of the Hebrew nation, learns that his nephew Lot has been taken captive. Abram (later to be renamed "Abraham" by God) immediately called out his trained servants, set out on a rescue mission, found his nephew's captors, attacked and routed, rescuing Lot. (Genesis 14). The resort to violence to rescue an innocent captive is presented as the morally appropriate choice.
Most gun prohibitionists who look to the Bible for support do not cite specific interdictions of weapons (there are none) but instead point to the general passages about peace and love, such as "Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matthew 5: 38-39); "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5: 43); and "Do not repay anyone evil for evil." (Romans 12: 17).
None of these exhortations take place in the context of an imminent threat to life. A slap on the cheek is a blow to pride, but not a threat to life. Reverend Anthony Winfield, author of a study of Biblical attitudes towards weapons, suggests that these verses command the faithful not to seek revenge for evil acts, and not to bear grudges against persons who have done them wrong. He points to the passage "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone" (Romans 12: 18), as showing an awareness that in extreme situations, it might not be possible to live in peace. [128]
Further evidence that the New Testament does not command universal pacifism is found in the missions of John the Baptist and Peter, both of whom preached to soldiers who converted. Neither John nor Peter demanded that the soldiers lay down their arms, or find another job. (Luke 3: 14; Acts 10: 22-48).
John did tell the soldiers "Don't extort money, and don't accuse people falsely," just as he told tax collectors "Don't collect any more than you are required to." The plain implication is that being a soldier (or a tax collector) is not itself wrong, so long as the inherent power is not used for selfish purposes.
Of course most gun prohibitionists do not see anything wrong with soldiers carrying weapons and killing people if necessary. But if--as the New Testament strongly implies--it is possible to be a good soldier and a good Christian, then it is impossible to claim that the Gospel always forbids the use of violence, no matter what the purpose. The stories of the soldiers support Winfield's thesis that the general Speace and love" passage are not blanket prohibitions on the use of force in all circumstances.
Is an approving attitude towards the bearing of arms confined to professional soldiers? Not at all. At the last supper, Jesus' final instructions to the apostles begin: "When I sent you without purse, bag, or sandals, did you lack anything?"
"Nothing," the apostles answer.
Jesus continues: "But now, if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one." He ends by observing "what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment."
The apostles then announce, "Lord, behold, here are two swords," and Jesus cuts them off: "That is enough." (Luke 22: 36-38).
Even if the passage is read with absolute literalness, Jesus was not setting up a rule that every apostle must carry a sword (or a purse or a bag). For the eleven, two swords were "enough."
More importantly, Jesus may not have been issuing an actual command that anybody carry swords, or purses, or bags. The broader, metaphorical point being made by Jesus was that the apostles would, after Jesus was gone, have to take care of their own worldly needs to some degree. The purse (generally used for money), the bag (generally used for clothing and food), and the sword (generally used for protection against the robbers who preyed on travelers, including missionaries, in the open country between towns) are all examples of tools used to take care of such needs. When the apostles took Jesus literally, and started showing him their swords, Jesus, frustrated that they missed the metaphor, ended the discussion. The metaphorical interpretation is supported by scholarly analysis, and seems to best account for the entire conversation.
Even when reduced to metaphor, however, the passage still contradicts the rigid pacifist viewpoint. In the metaphor, the sword, like the purse or the bag, is treated as an ordinary item for any person to carry. If weapons and defensive violence were illegitimate under all circumstances, Jesus would not have instructed the apostles to carry swords, even in metaphor, any more than Jesus would have created metaphors suggesting that people carry demonic statues for protection, or that they metaphorically rape, rob, and murder.
A few hours after the final instructions to the apostles, when soldiers arrived to arrest Jesus, and Peter sliced off the ear of one of their leaders, Jesus healed the ear. He then said "No more of this" (Luke 22: 49-51) or "Put your sword away" (John 18: 10) or "Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword" (Matthew 26: 52). (The quotation is sometimes rendered as "He who lives by the sword will die by the sword.") [129]
Jesus then rebuked the soldiers for effecting the arrests with clubs and swords, for Jesus was "not leading a rebellion." The most immediate meaning of these passages is that Jesus was preventing interference with God's plan for the arrest and trial. Additionally, Jesus was instructing the apostles not to begin an armed revolt against the local dictatorship or the Roman imperialists. Jesus had already refused the Zealots' urging to lead a war of national liberation.
Do the passages also suggest a general prohibition against drawing swords (or other weapons) for defense? The versions of the story recounted in Luke and John do not, but the version in Matthew could be so read.
If Matthew is analyzed along the lines of "He who lives by the sword will die by the sword," the passage is an admonition that a person who centers his life on violence (such as a gang member) will likely perish. On the other hand, a translation of "all who draw the sword will die by the sword" could be read as a general rule against armed violence in any situation.
The best way to understand the Bible, most theologians would concur, is not to look at passages in isolation, but instead to carefully study passages in the context of the rest of the Bible. If the single line in Matthew were to be read to indicate that to draw the sword is always wrong, then it would be difficult to account for the other passages which suggest that drawing a sword as a soldier (or carrying a sword as an apostle) is not illegitimate. Looking at the passage of Matthew in the context of the rest of the Bible would, therefore, look to the passage as a warning against violence as a way of life, rather than as a flat-out ban on defensive violence in all situations.
A 1994 document produced by the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace states:
The Catholic Church recognizes people as saints because (among other reasons), the lives of saints are considered to worthy of study and emulation. February 27 is the feast day of Saint Gabriel Possenti. According to The One Year Book of Saints, as a young man in 19th-century Italy, Francesco Possenti was known as the best dresser in town, as a "superb horseman," and as "an excellent marksman." The young man was also a consummate partygoer, who was engaged to two women at the same time. Twice during school he had fallen desperately ill, promised to give his life to God if he recovered, and then forgotten his promise. One day at church, Possenti saw a banner of Mary. He felt that her eyes looked directly at him, and he heard the words "Keep your promise."
Possenti immediately joined an order of monks, taking the name Brother Gabriel. The main incident for which Saint Gabriel Possenti is remembered was this:
[W]hen Garibaldi's mercenaries swept down through Italy ravaging villages, Brother Gabriel showed the kind of man he was by confronting them, astonishing them with his marksmanship, and saving the small village where his monastery was located. [131]
Saint Gabriel Possenti's "astonishing marksmanship" was displayed after he had just disarmed the soldier. The mercenaries' leader told Possenti that it would take more than just one monk with a handgun to make the mercenaries leave town. The saint pointed out to the mercenaries a lizard which was running across the road. Possenti shot the lizard right through the head, at which point the mercenaries decided that discretion was the better part of valor; they obeyed Possenti's orders to extinguish the fires they had started and to return the property they had stolen. They then fled the village, never to be heard from again.
Jewish law comes to the same conclusion as the Vatican Pontifical Council: "If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first," commands the Talmud. [132] Bystanders are likewise required to kill persons who attempting rape. [133] While there is a duty to self-defense, the duty to defend others is seen as prior. [134]
The view that forcible resistance to evil attack is itself evil has serious implications: Patrick Henry and the other founding fathers were wrong to urge armed resistance to the British Redcoats; the Jews who led the Warsaw Ghetto revolt against Hitler were immoral; Jeffrey Dahmer's victims would have been wrong to use a weapon to protect themselves; Saint Gabriel Possenti was a paragon of evil; Abraham should not have rescued his kidnapped nephew; and police officers who fire their guns to protect innocent people are sinful.
Consider the situation of a mother in a rough Los Angeles neighborhood, moments after an escaped psychopathic murderer has broken into her house. The woman has good reason to fear that the intruder is about to slaughter her three children. If she does not shoot him with her .38 special, the children will be dead before the police will arrive. Is the woman's moral obligation to murmur "violence engenders violence," and keep her handgun in the drawer while her children die? Or is the mother's moral duty to save her children, and shoot the intruder?
The view that life is a gift from God, and that permitting the wanton destruction of one's own life (or the life of a person under one's care) amounts to hubris is hardly new. As a 1747 sermon in Philadelphia put it:
Whatever their disagreements on other matters, the natural rights philosophers who provided the intellectual foundation of the American Revolution saw self-defense as "the primary law of nature," from which many other legal principles could be deduced. [136]
As the great Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote: "We shall have lost something vital and beyond price on the day when the state denies us the right to resort to force..." [137]
Leading criminal law scholars have emphasized a different, less philosophical, point: that victims protect the entire community when they kill a dangerous criminal rather than leaving him free to prey on others. To theorists such as Bishop, Stephens and Pollock "Sudden and strong resistance to unrighteous attack is not merely a thing to be tolerated ...as a necessary evil [but is] a just and perfect" right. A good citizen attacked has "a moral duty" to use all force necessary to apprehend or otherwise incapacitate criminals rather than to submit or retreat. [138]
Underlying the assertion that use of force to defend innocent life is immoral is the presumption that persons who use such force are "selfish." To the extent that social science can shed any light on this presumption, the presumption turns out to be exactly backwards. A study of "Good Samaritans" who came to aid of victims of violent crime found that 81% "own guns and some carry them in their cars. They are familiar with violence, feel competent to handle it, and don't believe they will be hurt if they get involved." [139] Are these people inferior moral beings who "engender violence"?
In any case, the claim that as a moral or practical matter a crime victim should rely on the government for protection can be raised only if the government has an obligation to protect the victim. And quite clearly under American law, the government has no such obligation.
It is well-settled American law that the police have no legal duty to protect any individual citizen from crime, even if the citizen has received death threats and the police have negligently failed to provide protection. [140] In New York, for example, the rule was explicated by the Court of Appeals in the case Riss v. New York: the government is not liable even for a grossly negligent failure to protect a crime victim. In the Riss case, a young woman telephoned the police and begged for help because her ex-boyfriend had repeatedly threatened, "If I can't have you, no one else will have you, and when I get through with you, no-one else will want you." The day after she had pleaded for police protection, the ex-boyfriend threw lye in her face, blinding her in one eye, severely damaging the other, and permanently scarring her features. "What makes the City's position particularly difficult to understand," wrote a dissenting opinion, "is that, in conformity to the dictates of the law, Linda did not carry any weapon for self-defense. Thus, by a rather bitter irony she was required to rely for protection on the City of New York which now denies all responsibility to her." [141]
In the case of Warren v. District of Columbia, two women were upstairs when they heard their roommate being attacked by men who had broken in downstairs. They immediately telephoned the police for assistance. Half an hour having passed and their roommate's screams having ceased, they assumed the police must have arrived and taken care of the situation. Actually, their call for help for a violent felony in progress had somehow been lost in the shuffle while the roommate was being beaten into silence. When the two roommates went downstairs, as the court's opinion graphically describes: "For the next fourteen hours the women were held captive, raped, robbed, beaten, forced to commit sexual acts upon each other, and made to submit to the sexual demands" of their attackers.
The roommates later sued the District of Columbia for ignoring their phone call for help. Having set out the facts of the case facts, the District of Columbia's highest court exonerated the District and its police, because it is: