Gun control advocates are losing the public-carry culture war. Seventy percent of gun owners now report at least “some circumstances in which they carry a handgun for self-defense,” up from 56% in the original survey.
That doesn’t necessarily reflect public carry, since some may carry only on private property. Still, the new report estimates that 33.6 million Americans are “public carriers” — that is, they have a concealed carry permit and carry for self-defense “at least sometimes.” That’s a remarkable 60% increase in five years.
What could possibly explain this?
The original survey ran from Feb. 17 to March 23, 2021. Much has changed in the public-carry landscape over the last five years.
Since July 1, 2021, 12 states with over 117 million people have enacted permitless carry laws, making it easier for law-abiding gun owners to arm themselves in public. Montana’s law took effect during the original survey. The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in “New York State Rifle & Pistol Association” also opened the door for tens of millions of Americans to finally engage in some manner of public carry, even if the 10 states whose public carry laws were implicated still make it incredibly difficult, expensive and time-consuming to get a concealed carry permit.
This increased access to public carry, combined with historically unprecedented violent crime spikes, seems to have facilitated something of a nationwide “come to Jesus” moment about the importance of armed self-defense in public spaces. And it’s fundamentally changing societal perceptions regarding the right to bear arms and not in the direction that gun control activists favor.
— Amy Swearer in Gun control activists demanded better data. What they got surprised the heck out of them