Our interactive map shows how the number of licenses to carry weapons has steadily increased in this region.

By many measures, the United States leads the world when it comes to guns.

It has one of the highest rates of private gun ownership – a combined total of 310 million firearms were owned by Americans in 2009, according to a 2012 study from the Congressional Research Service – and a particularly high number of gun-related deaths, whether homicide or suicide, among comparable developed nations.



Although Massachusetts tends to sit on the lower end of the gun ownership scale nationally, the number of people getting licensed to carry them here has still increased over the last seven years. The South Shore and Brockton areas are no exception.



So, which communities are packing the most heat locally?



An Enterprise review of state gun licensing data shows that the proportion of area residents with an active Class A License to Carry (LTC) – the type of license that permits a person to carry a concealed firearm, whether loaded or unloaded – has risen steadily since 2010, and middle-income communities tend to have more permits.



Class A licenses also permit the purchase, possession and transportation of all large and non-large-capacity handguns, rifles, shotguns and feeding devices, as well as ammunition. They’re the most common type of license, representing 91 percent of all gun permits statewide.



While the region’s population has held relatively steady since 2010, according to data from the University of Massachusetts’s Donahue Institute, the rate of active LTCs has risen across the board.



Plympton – the region’s least populous town with just under 3,000 residents – had the highest rate of concealed carry licensing in 2015, with about 130 permits for every 1,000 residents, or roughly 13 percent of the town’s population.

Middleboro (119.9 permits per 1,000) and Carver (117.9) had the next highest rates.



By comparison, the state overall has about 413,980 active permits as of Jan. 3, a licensing rate of 61 permits for every 1,000 residents.



Sharon was the least armed town last year, with a licensing rate of 30 permits per 1,000 residents. It’s also among the region’s wealthiest, with a median household income of $125,000.



Brockton (31.0) and Weymouth (34.5) followed.

Click to open interactive map





Mitchell Librett, a professor of criminal justice at Bridgewater State University and former police officer, said larger, more urban communities such as Brockton, Weymouth, Quincy and Taunton tend to have police departments that are more reluctant to issue LTCs than small, rural communities.



In Massachusetts, police chiefs have wide discretion to issue or withhold permits from applicants they believe are “unsuitable” to carry a gun.



“Massachusetts is a ‘may issue’ state, not a ‘shall issue’ state,” he said, meaning chiefs aren’t required to issue permits, and there’s no clear definition of what classifies a person as unsuitable.



Over the past seven years, the raw number of LTCs active in local towns has steadily risen, too.



Bridgewater saw the biggest jump with a 129 percent increase since 2010. Hull and Pembroke followed close behind at 123 percent each.



Plympton, despite having the highest overall rate of licensing, saw the smallest increase, up just 35 percent since 2010. Brockton, at 38 percent, and Scituate, with 47 percent, were the next lowest.



Librett said the trend nationally has followed suit toward more, not less, gun ownership.



“We’re an armed society, and I don’t expect that will change any time soon,” said Librett. Gun sales also typically spike following widely reported public attacks, he said. “One of the reasons is fear.”



Statewide, the number of active LTCs issued accelerated after 2013, and again between 2016 and 2017, the data show.



How wealthy or poor a community is also appears to affect licensing rates.



Towns with household incomes that fell within the middle of the range typically had more licensed residents than those on the higher and lower ends of the spectrum.



Librett said that trend could likely be attributed to the town or city’s culture.



Wealthier communities may have a larger proportion of highly educated professionals who he said may have less interest in the shooting sports or hunting than the working class populations more commonly found in middle-to-upper income communities.



“While they can certainly afford it, they may just be less interested,” he said.



When broken out by gender, the data show that the number of new permits issued and license renewals each year between 2011 and 2015 has generally followed the same pattern in both men and woman: The number of licenses issued in most towns spiked in 2013, then fell back to 2011 licensing levels.





