Carrying Firearms in Public and Stand Your Ground Laws
Carrying firearms in public places can pose a serious threat to public safety. Concealed carry laws regulate who can carry a loaded, concealed handgun in public spaces. Open carry laws regulate who can carry loaded guns that are visible to others in public spaces. Over the last four decades, the gun lobby has influenced states across the country to make concealed and open carry laws much more permissive.
Permissive open and concealed carry laws are promoted as policies that make it easier for individuals to defend themselves against crime. But these laws can increase gun violence in many ways including allowing individuals who have a history of acting violently to carry their firearms in public, providing more opportunities for armed intimidation and shootings in response to hostile interactions, and increasing criminals’ access to guns from thefts from motor vehicles. Lax laws on public gun carrying also make it difficult for law enforcement to respond to potentially lethal threats to public safety—including threats of political violence—when many civilians are legally armed in public settings.
The gun lobby has also pushed states to pass “Stand your ground” laws that overturn centuries of jurisprudence, allowing people to avoid criminal prosecution for the use of deadly force even when the person could safely retreat.
Stand your ground” laws increase homicides by promoting a “shoot first” culture of violence and, when combined with racial bias, result in the killing of Black Americans. These laws almost exclusively serve white men, providing protections and immunity to those white Americans who claim self-defense, while not affording the same protections to Black Americans.
To reduce gun violence, policymakers should strengthen their concealed and open carry laws and repeal stand your ground laws.
- Permissive concealed carry permitting laws are linked to 13-15 percent higher violent crime rates ten years after adoption compared to may-issue states.
- The passage of “stand your ground” laws was linked to an 8-11 percent increase in the monthly gun homicide rate, translating to an additional 700 gun deaths each year.
- Policies including placing limits on public carry, placing limitations on paramilitary groups, limiting guns in polling places, legislative buildings, and other places of political participation, enacting and implementing extreme risk protection orders, and repealing or creating exceptions to state preemption laws are all measures that can mitigate armed insurrectionism.
Over the last several decades, state laws governing concealed carry have loosened. In the 1990s and early 2000s, may states switched from may issue laws or concealed carry bans to shall issue laws. In the 2010s, states have increasingly dropped their permit requirements completely, adopting laws allowing permitless carry. This trend has continued into the 2020s. These maps show the status of state concealed carry laws, by state, for each decade from 1980 to 2022.
In 1980, there were 21 states with no issue laws, which generally banned concealed carry
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Colorado
- Illinois
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
There were 24 states with may issue laws, which afforded law enforcement discretion in issuing concealed carry permits:
- Alabama
- California
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Iowa
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Montana
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New York
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Utah
- Virginia
- West Virginia
There were 4 states with shall issue laws, which do not afford law enforcement discretion in issuing concealed carry permits:
- Indiana
- New Hampshire
- Rhode Island
- Washington
There was 1 state that allowed permitless carry:
- Vermont
At the end of 2021, there were no states with no issue laws, which generally banned concealed carry
There were 8 states with may issue laws, which afforded law enforcement discretion in issuing concealed carry permits:
- California
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Hawaii
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- New Jersey
- New York
There were 21 states with shall issue laws, which do not afford law enforcement discretion in issuing concealed carry permits:
- Alabama
- Colorado
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Louisiana
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wisconsin
There were 21 states that allowed permitless carry, and more states continue to adopt this policy in 2022, making it the most prevalent concealed carry policy in the U.S.
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Idaho
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Maine
- Missouri
- Mississippi
- Montana
- New Hampshire
- North Dakota
- Oklahoma
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- West Virginia
- Wyoming
“Over the past decade, we've seen an accelerated deregulation of concealed carry. States are increasingly abandoning the permit requirement in favor of permitless carry and some of the strictest laws face litigation. Our work highlights the risks of allowing permitless carry and the need for lawmakers to think critically about permitting mechanisms that might reduce that risk.”
—Alex McCourt, PhD, JD, MPH
Assistant Professor
Our Work
The Center’s work in this area focuses on the growing body of evidence showing that the deregulation of civilian gun carrying leads to more violence, including firearm homicides and shootings by police. Center faculty have authored reports debunking myths that proponents of right-to-carry put forth and examining armed insurrectionism, researched the impact of campus carry (guns on campus) legislation, and conducted public opinion polling on concealed carry.
Select Journal Articles
- Right-to-Carry Laws and Firearm Workplace Homicides: A Longitudinal Analysis (1992-2017). Doucette ML, Crifasi CK, Frattaroli S. Am J Public Health. 2019 Dec;109(12):1747-1753.
- Workplace homicides committed by firearm: recent trends and narrative text analysis Doucette, M.L., Bulzacchelli, M.T., Frattaroli, S. et al. Inj. Epidemiol. 2019; 6: 5.
- Association between Firearm Laws and Homicide in Urban Counties. Crifasi CK, Merrill-Francis M, McCourt A, Vernick JS, Wintemute GJ, Webster DW. J Urban Health. 2018 Jun;95(3):383-390.
- Gun Policy in the United States: Evidence-Based Strategies to Reduce Gun Violence. Crifasi C. Appl Health Econ Health Policy. 2018 Oct;16(5):579-581.
Center Reports
- Concealed Carry of Firearms: Facts vs. Fiction
- Firearms on College Campuses: Research Evidence and Policy Implications
- Stand Your Ground Laws Increase Gun Violence and Perpetuate Racial Disparities
- Defending Democracy: Addressing the Dangers of Armed Insurrection
- CSGV Report, Guns in Public: A Threat to Safety and Democracy
- CSGV and Guns Down America Report, Guns Down At The Polls: How States Can and Should Limit Firearms at Polling Places
References
- Roman JK. (2013). Race, justifiable homicide, and stand your ground laws: Analysis of FBI Supplementary Homicide Report data. Urban Institute. https://www.urban.org/research/publication/race-justifiable-homicide-and-stand-your-ground-laws
- Donohue JJ, Aneja A, & Weber KD. (2019). Right‐to‐carry laws and violent crime: A comprehensive assessment using panel data and a state‐level synthetic control analysis. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.
- Esposti MD, Wiebe DJ, Gasparrini A. Humphreys, Dk. (2022) Analysis of “stand your ground” self-defense laws and statewide rates of homicides and firearm homicides. JAMA Network Open.
- Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. (2022). Defending Democracy: Addressing the Dangers of Armed Insurrection.