A study by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) shows that women and blacks led last year’s record-breaking surge in concealed carry permits.
According to the CPRC, “the number of permit holders grew by a record 1.83 million” in 2016. And in the 14 states that provide information regarding gender of permit holders, more than one out of three permit holders were women.
The number of women with permits has been increasing for some time. The CPRC shows that “eight states had data from 2012 to 2016 and they saw a 326% faster increase in permits among women than among men.” During the same time period—2012 to 2016—race data available from five states shows “the number of black people with permits increased 30% faster than the number of whites with permits.”
It is also interesting to note the CPRC took an isolated look at Los Angeles County, California, to see what effect the “good cause” requirement may have on permit issuance. They looked at permit holders in 2013, obtaining a list of the 341 permit holders from LA Weekly. (By the way, those are 341 permit holders in a population of 7.7 million people.)
Of the 341, the CPRC was able to figure out race and gender of 135. The findings: “4 Hispanics (3%), 7 blacks (5.2%), 15 Asians (11.1%), and 109 whites.” Moreover, only 16 of the permit holders were female. In other words, it appears that the “good cause” requirement pays dividends to white males—especially white males who contribute to their local sheriff—but not so much for non-whites and women.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.