According to a 2025 report by the Crime Prevention Research Center, there are approximately 20.9 million concealed carry permit holders in the United States, representing about 7.8 percent of the adult population.
However, that figure understates the number of people legally carrying firearms. The same analysis found that 29 states now allow “constitutional carry,” meaning no permit is required, with roughly 46.8 percent of Americans—about 157.6 million people—living in those jurisdictions.
As a result, permit numbers have begun to decline from a peak of around 22 million in 2022, even as the number of people able to carry firearms has expanded. . . .
So, what’s all the “new” news? Recent survey data conducted in partnership between the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) and the well-respected polling firm The McLaughlin Group revealed Americans are significantly more likely to support and exercise their Second Amendment rights now than they were just 18 months ago. They are less likely to support increased gun control restrictions pushed by antigun activists.
The three main takeaways from the polling are simple and straightforward.
First, “Independent voters are more aligned with enforcement-focused crime policies than additional gun-control legislation,” the polling summary states. The data showed that more than 63 percent of survey respondents agreed that enforcing existing laws and arresting and prosecuting criminals would do the most to reduce crime, compared with less than 30 percent who thought passing additional gun control laws would help. . . .
LET Guest, “Gun Control Activists Didn’t See This Coming,” Law Enforcement Today, June 29, 2026.
A report compiled by Gary Mauser and John Lott, Jr. shows gun-controlled Canada has “a serious crime problem” and explains how the crime levels escape the attention of Canadians.
Writing in the Toronto Sun, Mauser and Lott note that comparable levels of crime between the U.S. and Canada is often skewed by a focus on homicide rates. Thus, seeing that the “the [2025] U.S. murder rate…will be about four per 100,000 people, roughly double Canada’s 2024 homicide rate of 1.91 per 100,000,” leads many to surmise that Canada is much safer than the U.S. and that is the end of the discussion.
However, Mauser and Lott point out, “…Homicides represent only a tiny fraction of violent crime. In 2024, murders accounted for just 0.21% of violent crimes in the United States. In Canada, according to Statistics Canada’s 2019 General Social Survey (GSS), homicides represented only about 0.022% of total violent crime.” And when the reader looks deeper than homicide rates he is reminded “Canadians are far more likely to experience assault, robbery or other violent crimes than homicide.”
For particulars, Mauser and Lott not that a more thorough understanding of crime in the U.S. can be had by reading the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and, in Canada, the Statistics Canada conducts the General Social Survey (GSS). In reading the findings of these two surveys one sees that Canadians do not report crime to police on levels seen in the U.S., and that alone skews the subsequent differences between levels of actual crime and reported crime.
This can give Canadians a false sense of security. (For instance, Mauser and Lott observed, “The police-reported violent-crime rate in 2019 was 885 per 100,000 people, while the GSS estimated total violent victimization at 8,300 per 100,000. Police statistics therefore captured only about 10.7% of violent crime measured by the survey.”)
Compounding the perception derived from the lack of police reporting, Canada’s specific definition of certain crimes is different than that of the U.S., making comparable understanding difficult. The differing definitions and survey approaches “[tend] to inflate U.S. violent-crime totals relative to Canada’s.”
However, even in this scenario, in 2019 “Canada’s overall violent-crime victimization rate was 295% higher than the U.S. rate. Even if sexual assaults are excluded to reduce differences in definitions, Canada’s violent-crime rate remained 175% higher.”
An analysis by the Crime Prevention Research Center found that concealed carry permit holders commit crimes at about 1/10th the rate of police, and police commit crimes at roughly 1/37 the rate of the general public. . . .
So, what’s all the “new” news? Recent survey dataconducted in partnership between the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) and the well-respected polling firm The McLaughlin Group revealed Americans are significantly more likely to support and exercise their Second Amendment rights now than they were just 18 months ago. They are less likely to support increased gun control restrictions pushed by antigun activists. . . .
Un rapporto compilato da Gary Mauser e John Lott, Jr. mostra che il Canada controllato dalle armi ha “un serio problema di criminalità” e spiega come i livelli di criminalità sfuggono all’attenzione dei canadesi.
Scrivendo nel Toronto SoleMauser e Lott nota che livelli comparabili di criminalità tra Stati Uniti e Canada sono spesso distorti dall’attenzione ai tassi di omicidio. Quindi, visto che il “the [2025] Il tasso di omicidi negli Stati Uniti… sarà di circa quattro su 100.000 persone, circa il doppio del tasso di omicidi del Canada nel 2024, pari a 1,91 su 100.000”, porta molti a supporre che il Canada sia molto più sicuro degli Stati Uniti e questa è la fine della discussione.
Tuttavia, Mauser e Lott sottolineano: “… Gli omicidi rappresentano solo una piccola frazione dei crimini violenti. Nel 2024, gli omicidi rappresentavano solo lo 0,21% dei crimini violenti negli Stati Uniti. In Canada, secondo il General Social Survey (GSS) del 2019 di Statistics Canada, gli omicidi rappresentavano solo lo 0,022% circa del crimine violento totale”. E quando il lettore esamina più in profondità i tassi di omicidio gli viene ricordato che “i canadesi hanno molte più probabilità di subire aggressioni, rapine o altri crimini violenti rispetto agli omicidi”. . . . [Much more]
So, what’s all the “new” news? Recent survey data conducted in partnership between the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) and the well-respected polling firm The McLaughlin Group revealed Americans are significantly more likely to support and exercise their Second Amendment rights now than they were just 18 months ago. They are less likely to support increased gun control restrictions pushed by antigun activists.
The three main takeaways from the polling are simple and straightforward.
First, “Independent voters are more aligned with enforcement-focused crime policies than additional gun-control legislation,” the polling summary states. The data showed that more than 63 percent of survey respondents agreed that enforcing existing laws and arresting and prosecuting criminals would do the most to reduce crime, compared with less than 30 percent who thought passing additional gun control laws would help.
This new reality tracks with what NSSF and its membership has seen, especially over the past few years. Since 2020, there have been more than 26.2 million new first-time gun owners, those who previously may have opposed gun rights but were driven to lawful gun ownership due to surges in crime in cities where “defund the police” budget cuts were implemented and soft-on-criminal George Soros-funded prosecutors came into office. Those two policies largely backfired as innocent law-abiding Americans turned instead to exercising their Second Amendment rights — many of whom were politically Independent, or even Democrats.
Changing Face of Firearms
The second main takeaway from the new polling data is that gun control groups often ignore that women are much more persuadable on gun rights, or even open to gun ownership, than these activist groups tend to believe.
“Only 18% of women view additional gun-control laws as the primary solution to public safety concerns,” the polling report says. “At the same time, women continue to represent one of the fastest-growing segments of new firearm owners and concealed carry permit holders nationwide. Increasing numbers of women view firearm ownership as a practical means of personal protection rather than a political statement.”
That’s exactly what NSSF data has revealed in the past few years as well, as women of all races and backgrounds voted with their wallets and purses at the gun retail counter, crowded into firearm retailer concealed carry classes and went to the ranges in large groups to train.
The Cut even proclaimed, “Black women are the new face of American gun ownership,” largely due to their overwhelming concerns for safety and protecting their children in neighborhoods with increased crime and reduced police presence.
NBC News highlighted the growing number of women gun owners as well, even spotlighting that many were choosing to purchase Modern Sporting Rifles(MSRs), or AR-15-style semiautomatic rifles, as their preferred firearm to bring home.
The third major takeaway from the new CPRC/McGlaughlin Group survey is that minority Americans are overwhelmingly choosing to exercise their Second Amendment rights, creating the most diverse gun owning community in history. No more can media outlets and gun control groups claim gun owners are just “pale, stale and male,” old white men. The fact is that the faces of firearms owners is changing. It has been and is picking up pace.
“Many minority communities experience disproportionately high rates of violent crime and appear increasingly skeptical that additional restrictions on responsible firearm owners will meaningfully improve public safety,” the report states.
What’s the data show? Among African-American and Hispanic-American respondents, 62 percent opposed to creating and implementing new gun control laws.
NSSF data has revealed significant increases in the percentages of minority community members purchasing firearms in recent years. According to NSSF retailer survey data, law-abiding Hispanic Americans purchased firearms in 2020 at a 49 percent higher rate than they did in 2019. African Americans purchased firearms at a rate that was 58 percent higher than the previous year and for Asian Americans it was close to 43 percent. Those rates have cooled since but have created “new normals” of gun ownership among nearly every demographic.
The polling memo concluded with a succinct message for both Second Amendment supporters and gun control activist counterparts: “The most persuasive message across all communication platforms is not simply one that defends gun rights — it is demonstrating how lawful firearm ownership, effective law enforcement, and accountability for violent criminals work together to create safer communities.” . . .
Former President Barack Obama once said that he thought the United States should have a gun control system similar to Australia’s. A lot of people agree, and they point to Australia’s relatively low crime rate as evidence that we should do just that.
But is the country as low-crime as we’ve been led to believe? Apparently, it ain’t.
In fact, in a lot of ways, it’s worse than the United States, apparently. That’s according to Dr. John Lott.
Written by Malcolm Roberts and John Lott, Jr., the report beginsby explaining that the establishment media’s approach to coverage and the method of compiling crime stats leads many to believe Australia’s “crime rate is low compared with the countries like the United States.”
The media “reinforces the myth” of lower crime while less than 20 percent of rapes and sexual assaults are reported to Australian police. However, in the U.S., 45 percent of such personal crimes are reported to police. This difference in the level of personal crime reporting skews the figures seen by the populations of both countries and feeds into the establishment media’s low-crime narrative.
After a hard look at the real numbers, Roberts and Lott wrote: “Australia’s rape and sexual assault rate is roughly three times higher than that of the United States. Australia’s assault rate is about twice as high, and its burglary rate is about 2.5 times higher. Robbery is the only category where the two countries report similar rates.”
The authors also noted that guns aren’t available for self-defense, and knives aren’t nearly as practical for most women to use to defend themselves from such a heinous crime, and they’re right. Knives are deadly weapons, of course, but it takes skill to fight with one, especially against an opponent who can just overpower you. Sure, they might get cut, but that doesn’t help if you’re dead.
The authors also note that even things that can be used purely for defensive purposes, like pepper spray, are forbidden, meaning that fighting back really isn’t an option. . . .
John R. Lott Jr., autor de More Guns Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, ofrece en su fantástica obra algunos datos bien interesantes:
1. Los delincuentes siempre buscan presas más vulnerables… siempre.
2. La probabilidad de que una mujer sufra graves lesiones es casi cuatro veces mayor cuando esta resiste sin un arma que cuando resiste con una.
3. El temor de un delincuente a encontrarse con una víctima armada lo obliga a asegurarse primero (sea lo que quiera hacer) de que ella no esté presente.
4. Los delincuentes condenados revelan en distintas encuestas que les preocupan mucho más las víctimas armadas que cruzarse con la policía, y más de la mitad afirman que no atacarían a una víctima que supieran armada.
Cristian Toro, “Como corderos llevados al matadero,” AP Alponiente, June 28, 2026.
Canada is just one of many gun-controlled nations. They didn’t use to be this awful, but thanks to Justin Trudeau, they are now and are likely to get even worse as things continue.
And, as has happened pretty much everywhere, it was predicated on stopping crime. That’s what our own domestic bunch tells us, too, and they try to make the claim that crime in all these other countries is so much less than ours.
First, let’s keep in mind that our non-gun homicide rate has historically been higher than most developed nations’ total homicide rates, so that’s a thing that cannot be overlooked when you’re trying to make comparisons with other countries.
But let’s also not pretend that gun control has a lot to do with that. After all, Canada has it, and darn near as extensively as the UK does, and how is that working out for it?
Not worth a damn, actually. That’s not me talking, but John Lott and Gary Mauser, who are criminologists and know more than me. . . .
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