In addition to being history’s greatest gun salesman, Barack Obama did the best job of convincing John Q. Public there really is a need for concealed carry. John Q. paid attention and turned out by the thousands. Also under Obama’s watch the last two concealed carry hold-out states – Wisconsin and Illinois – passed laws permitting residents to carry a concealed firearm.

Of course the Birkenstock Brigade fought it in both states warning of dire consequences, casually ignoring the other 48 states not experiencing any problem with concealed carry permit holders. So far, no blood running in the streets, no concealed carry permit holder shooting someone over a parking space or any of the other dire warnings that were issued by Democrats prior to the law’s implementation. What did happen is John Q. turned out in droves and signed up for concealed carry.

According to a recent article in Breitbart, concealed carry permits rose 215 percent between 2007 and 2015, and the murder rate dropped 14 percent during that same time period. Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) data shows there were 14.5 million permit holders in May 2016 and approximately 15.7 million in May 2017.

In the CPRC’s latest annual report which covers 2015, it notes the number of concealed handgun permits issued that year set another record, an increase of 1.73 million permits issued, slightly higher than the previous record of 1.69 million. Currently about 6.06 percent of the approximately 248 million adults in the U.S., have a concealed carry permit.

Ten states have more than 10% of the adults registered as concealed carry holders with Indiana the highest at 15% and South Dakota coming in at number two with 14.7%. Three states, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas, have over a million residents each who are concealed carry permit holders. It is also safe to say that these numbers do not reflect the true number of concealed carry holders because there are eleven states that do not require any licensing.

One interesting side note is between 2012 and 2016, in states that provide data by gender, the number of women with permits has increased at double the rate of men.

As always, the Birkenstock Brigade produces endless talking points all aimed at making people believe concealed carry leads to an increase in criminal activity. According to Gun Facts, gun homicides were 10 percent higher in states with restrictive CCW laws according to a study spanning 1980-2009.

What studies have consistently shown, since Florida introduced concealed carry in 1988, is only 0.02% of all concealed carry permit holders have gone on to commit a gun-related crime. After passing their concealed carry law, Florida’s homicide rate fell from 36% above the national average to 4% below. Similarly, the Texas murder rates fell 50% faster than the national average, rape rates dropped 93% faster in the first year after enactment and 500% faster in the second year.

Conversely, cities such as Chicago, New York and Los Angeles with the most restrictive gun ownership laws, have shockingly high violent crime rates.

The one thing they don’t talk about is while the dramatic influx of concealed permit holders was happening, the murder rate dropped by 14 percent and the overall violent crime rate dropped by 21 percent.

While it is difficult to come up with hard evidence of an inverse relationship between the two, there is substantial anecdotal information from inmates saying one of the prime concerns in the commission of a crime is the vulnerability of the potential victim; bad guys don’t want to get shot.

For all the gun control exhortations by the Birkenstock Brigade about “common sense,” novelist and science fiction author Robert Heinlein best illustrated a common sense explanation when he wrote in Beyond This Horizon, “An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.”