More permissive concealed carry laws led to higher gun crime, a new study found. Researchers John Donohue, Samuel Cai, and Matthew Bondy of Stanford Law School and Philip Cook of Duke University looked at data from 47 big cities from 1979 to 2019. They found increases in violent gun crime (29 percent), gun robbery (32 percent), and gun theft (35 percent) after the enactment of shall-issue concealed carry permit laws, The Trace reports.
The researchers found a 13 percent drop in the rates at which police clear violent crime cases after the introduction of the laws. The findings are a mixed result involving the behavior of permit holders, career criminals, and police. Roughly two-thirds of the violent crime increase was found to be caused by impaired policing and increased gun theft. “Any crime-inhibiting benefits from increased gun carrying are swamped by the crime-stimulating impacts,” the authors write. Numerous studies in recent years have likewise found that crime increased after the enactment of shall-issue laws.