ATTENTION: Need assistance with laws by state for academic paper

[caharris93]

Hey everyone,

I am currently working on an undergraduate econometrics paper looking at correlation between gun laws and violent crime rate by state over the past 10 years. My main variable of interest is looking at how a prolonged presence of a concealed carry law leads to a lower violent crime rate.

HERE IS WHERE I COULD GREATLY USE YOUR HELP:

I am having real trouble trying to find a true effective date for concealed carry laws on a state by state basis. I want to take each state's effective date and look at how many years it has been since that law was made effective and how violent crime has been effected. Is there a resource that any of you know of that where I could easily find this information? If not, do any of you have advice on how best to go about finding this information?

Thank you. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Pir8fan]

Handgunlaw.us is a good place to start

 

[UATKP]

This might help you out for the State of Texas: Link Removed

Actually, it covers not only Texas information, but the history of Concealed Carry in the USA... at least you might get some start dates here...

 

[tricolordad]

Wisconsin had conceal carry signed into law in November 2011, and started issuing permits Jan. 1, 2012.

It was Nov, right?

 

[nogods]

My main variable of interest is looking at how a prolonged presence of a concealed carry law leads to a lower violent crime rate.

Did you mean "whether" rather than "how"?

I think it would be very difficult to equate the age of a conceal carry law with crime rates. For example, New York has had a concealed carry law since 1911. Texas enacted its law in 1995, 84 years after New York.

It is true that the violent crime rate in New York is lower than the violent crime rate in Texas. Do you think it is because New York had a conceal carry law for 84 years before Texas did?

 

[JJSwiontek]

Colorado: March, 2003, Colorado conceal-carry with permit was signed into law. Good luck on your paper. Give us a link when you are through.

 

[gwp1948]

Check out dr david doddendorf (if I spelled his name correctly). He did a similar study some years ago. His white paper ha a lot of info.

 

[sdprof]

It's also a bit hard to make the comparisons. Some states have concealed carry permits on the books, but the "may issue" requirements preclude most citizens from being able to exercise that "privilege" even if they want to. NY, NJ, many areas of CA, HI come especially to mind.

Following from the THCA link above, here's a good list of when CC pemits became available or changed status in most states.
Radical Gun Nuttery!

 

[Patriot58]

I've been down this road before. You will be unable to prove a causal relationship between gun laws, CCW permits, and violent crime. It is easy to show a correlation that violent crime (in the U.S.) has decreased as gun ownership and concealed carry permits have become more prevalent over the past 15-20 years. But correlation is not necessarily causation. While I respect and agree with many of John Lott's conclusions, his data doesn't support a causal relationship. The problem is that the number of variables is simply too large. Prevalence of violent crime can just as easily be correlated with population density, poverty levels, or any other number of individual or grouped factors.

 

[CapGun]

Did you mean "whether" rather than "how"?

I think it would be very difficult to equate the age of a conceal carry law with crime rates. For example, New York has had a concealed carry law since 1911. Texas enacted its law in 1995, 84 years after New York.

It is true that the violent crime rate in New York is lower than the violent crime rate in Texas. Do you think it is because New York had a conceal carry law for 84 years before Texas did?

He might also like to check out the words effect and affect. The effect of using the word effect as opposed to affect in the sentence as he did will affect his grade negatively!

Email John Lott of MORE GUNS LESS CRIME. He will answer your query and give you some guidance.

 

[sdprof]

Agree with Patriot58.

The one thing that can be shown from all the crime stats and gun ownership stats is that as more guns were bought by the public, and more members of the public obtained concealed carry permits, blood did not flow in the streets. CC permit holders are by and large responsible for a significantly lower proportion of gun related (or most any kind, for that matter) of crime than the populace in general.

 

[gwp1948]

sdprof is correct. There are quantifiable stats to show that permit holders are, in MN, 1/2 as likely to be involved in a shooting incidfentas non-permit holders. Causal data is not available, but 'awareness of their surroundings' and 'not living in or avoiding areas where they might have to use a gun' are common theories. Crime statistics are not complete; many crimes go unreported by either the victim or the local police. Interviewing criminals there was some consistency that the criminals avoided people who were armed or passed up potential victims if the criminal had suspicion that a potential victim was armed. You can't quantify deterence.

 

[nogods]

The variety of concealed carry laws also make it impossible to quantify the results.

For example, as pointed out earlier, NYS has a lower violent crime rate than Texas. NYS has had conceal carry laws for 84 years longer than Texas, but in NYS not every yahoo can get a permit. However, in NYS everyone who gets a concealed carry permit can legally carry in bars, restaurants, churches, local government buildings, sporting events, and a host of other places those in other states with less stringent permit requirements cannot carry. So perhaps the reason NYS has a lower crime rate than Texas is because although there are fewer yahoos with guns, there are more qualified people in more places with guns.