FireArm Friday: The World Is Safer When We All Carry - #2A
Concealed Carry Permit Holders Remain Among America’s Most Law-Abiding Citizens
Concealed Carry Permit Holders Remain Among America’s Most Law-Abiding Citizens
(Dean Weingarten, AmmoLand) - People with concealed carry permits are among the most law-abiding groups in the United States. Police officers have crime rates far below the general population. People with concealed carry permits are more law-abiding than police officers.
The arrest rate for the overall adult population in the USA is about 2,100 – 2,200 per 100k in recent years. The arrest rate for police officers has been about 170 per 100k. This may be low because no one officially tracks police arrests. Officials may be reluctant to charge police officers. The conviction rate for concealed permit holders is about 17.6 per 100k in Texas, according to an academic paper by John Lott, Moody, and Wang published in 2025. From the paper:
Of the 43,932 total convictions in the Texas DPS 2023 report, only 284 — or 0.6 percent — were convictions of LTC holders, a conviction rate of 17.6 per 100,000.
Convictions are not the same as arrests. Arrests for felonies tend to result in about 65% convictions. Arrests for misdemeanors result in about 45% convictions. A conviction rate is likely to be about half of the arrest rate. If we double the conviction rate to approximate the arrest rate, concealed permit holders have less than one-fifth the arrest rate of police officers. The arrest rate for…