Alessandra Cootes decision to arm herself began with a terrifying walk on a Utah trail with her toddler and family dog that ended in a stranger screaming at her and threatening to kill the animal.
According to WND, the petite single mother returned home from that encounter and concluded that, in an era of rising social disorder and shrinking respect for law enforcement, she needed something more than wishful thinking to protect herself and her child, so she bought a firearm. A few months later, while living in what she described as a shady part of town, a homeless man threatened her, reinforcing her conviction that relying solely on the state for protection was no longer an option. After that incident, she began to carry a handgun regularly under Utahs Constitutional Carry law, which allows law-abiding citizens to bear arms without first begging the government for permission.
Coote, who just graduated this spring from the University of Utah, says that carrying a gun has fundamentally changed how she moves through the world, replacing fear with a sense of agency. Its been life-changing, she told RealClearInvestigations, explaining that although she has never had to draw or fire her weapon, she once faced a threatening man while armed and stopped the confrontation simply by letting him know she was carrying.
Her story is not an outlier but part of a broader national shift in which ordinary Americansespecially women and minoritiesare embracing their Second Amendment rights as a practical tool of self-defense rather than a political abstraction. A new national survey found that almost 30% of respondents now say they carry a firearm, a remarkable figure in a country where gun-control advocates insist that more guns must inevitably mean more crime.
More specifically, the survey found that 13.2% of respondents said they carry a firearm all or most of the time, while an additional 16.6% reported carrying sometimes or rarely. These results represent a 5.5 percentage-point increase in the share of respondents who say they carry firearms compared with a similar poll conducted in an earlier year, suggesting that concealed carry is rapidly becoming a normalized part of American life rather than a fringe practice.
Both polls were commissioned by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), a research organization that has long challenged progressive narratives about guns and crime, and each has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points. The data arrive at a moment when the political class continues to debate gun safety restrictions, even as millions of citizens quietly vote with their holsters for a different approach: personal responsibility and lawful self-defense.
Since 2021, 13 statestogether home to roughly 34% of the U.S. populationhave adopted constitutional carry laws, eliminating the requirement that law-abiding adults obtain a government permit to carry a concealed handgun. As a result, 29 states now allow citizens to carry concealed firearms without first navigating a costly, time-consuming, and often arbitrary permitting process, a shift that reflects a renewed respect for the plain text of the Second Amendment.
Even in these constitutional carry jurisdictions, however, a little less than two-thirds of those who carry a concealed handgun still choose to obtain a permit, often to facilitate interstate travel or to take advantage of reciprocity agreements. That willingness to comply with additional rules, even when not strictly required, underscores a point often ignored by gun-control activists: the people who go through legal channels to carry firearms are overwhelmingly the ones who follow the law.
The CPRC survey is the latest in a growing body of evidence that undermines the oft-repeated claim that more guns in civilian hands automatically translate into more violent crime. As the number of privately owned firearms and the percentage of Americans carrying them have both climbed, preliminary estimates indicate that the U.S. murder rate is likely to fall to a level at least 10% below the previous record low.
It doesnt surprise me that while the country is experiencing record-low murder and violent crime rates, we are also experiencing a record high number of people legally carrying concealed handguns for self-protection, Alan Gottlieb, the executive vice president and founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, told RCI. His observation cuts directly against the narrative pushed by national gun-control organizations, which routinely predict blood in the streets whenever states loosen restrictions on law-abiding gun owners.
On the front lines of law enforcement, many sheriffs and police leaders echo that skepticism toward anti-gun talking points. Bradford County, Florida, Sheriff Gordon Smith said lowering crime rates isnt rocket science, and he told RCI, You reduce crime by putting more cops on the street, increasing arrest and conviction rates, and imposing meaningful prison sentences. But you also cut crime by empowering law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and their families through constitutional carry.
Gun-control advocacy groups, including Everytown for Gun Safety, Brady United, and the Giffords Law Center, declined repeated requests to comment on the survey data and crime statistics, a silence that speaks volumes given how aggressively they usually promote studies that appear to support their agenda. When confronted with evidence that more lawful carry coincides with lower crime, their refusal to engage suggests that ideology, not public safety, is driving much of the gun-control movement.
The CPRC survey also found that politically engaged citizens are more likely to carry firearms than those who are disengaged from the electoral process. Respondents who identified as general election voters were twice as likely to hold concealed handgun permits as other adults, indicating that the people who carry are not fringe extremists but active participants in civic life.
Perhaps most striking, the data show that blacks and Hispanics carry at disproportionately high rates, contradicting the stereotype that gun rights are primarily a concern of white conservatives. Black Americans make up 11.0% of likely voters but account for 15.9% of those who carry all or most of the time, while Hispanics are even more overrepresented, comprising 18.8% of frequent carriers despite being only 11.0% of likely voters.
By contrast, whites and Asians carry at rates below their share of the likely voter pool. Whites constitute 72% of likely voters but only 62.6% of those who carry all or most of the time, while Asians account for 4.0% of likely voters but just 2.0% of frequent carriers, suggesting that the modern gun-rights movement is increasingly diverse and rooted in communities that often face the brunt of urban crime.
For many of these Americans, the decision to carry is not ideological but intensely personal. Audrey Bodiford, a 52 black woman living in Lansing, Michigan, told RCI she owes her life to her handgun and to having a concealed handgun permit, a stark reminder that the right to bear arms can be the difference between life and death for those physically outmatched by their attackers.
On Valentines Day in 2022, she said, the over 6-foot-tall man she had been dating kind of went crazy, threatened to kill her, and pulled a knife on her. Fearing for her life, she shot him in self-defense, an act that would have been far more difficultif not impossiblehad she been forced to rely solely on restraining orders or a 911 call.
Because she lives in what she describes as a not good neighborhood, that was not the only time she relied on her firearm for protection. In another incident, she said she accidentally let a door slip from her hand while trying to hold it open for a man leaving a store, prompting him to become verbally abusive, follow her, and aggressively close in until she subtly turned so he could see that she was armed, at which point he immediately backed off and ended the confrontation.
Asked if carrying has given her more confidence, Bodiford did not hesitate. I feel more safe, definitely, she said, capturing in a few words what countless women and vulnerable individuals experience when they are no longer forced to meet male aggression with nothing more than their bare hands.
The survey found relatively small differences between men and women in overall carry rates, but the nuances are revealing. While women make up 52% of general election voters, they comprise 45.1% of Americans carrying concealed weapons, while men are 48% of the electorate and 54.9% of those who carry all or most of the time.
In constitutional carry states, the gender gap narrows further, with 47.5% of those carrying all or most of the time being women and 52.5% men. Constitutional carry appears to particularly benefit women who suddenly face threats from stalkers or abusive former partners and often cannot afford to wait months for bureaucrats to approve a permit application while their lives hang in the balance.
Research highlighted by CPRC indicates that two groups benefit the most from carrying firearms: physically weaker individuals, such as women and the elderly, and those most likely to become crime victims, such as poor blacks living in high-crime urban areas. These same groups have also experienced the fastest growth in concealed handgun permits over the last decade (20152024), with permits for women increasing 112% faster than for men and permits for blacks rising 284% faster than for whites.
A firearm dramatically increases a womans ability to defend herself, Professor Carl Moody, a crime researcher at the College of William & Mary, told RCI. Without a firearm, a woman is almost always at a significant disadvantage if attacked by a man. With a firearm, she can avoid an unfair fight with an opponent who usually has a size and strength advantage. Almost always, it is only necessary to announce or display the weapon to dissuade the attacker.
The legal landscape has also shifted in ways that undercut long-standing efforts by blue-state politicians to keep ordinary citizens disarmed. After the Supreme Court struck down a New York state law in 2022 that had sharply limited the number of people who could carry concealed weapons, six statesCalifornia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New Yorkwere forced to make it easier to obtain a concealed handgun permit by eliminating arbitrary may-issue discretion and establishing objective rules on training and other qualifications.
This dangerous decision will make America a less safe country, Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy warned at the time, echoing the alarmist rhetoric common among progressive officials whenever courts enforce constitutional limits on state power. Yet those same states have since seen an enormous increase in the number of permits issued, with New Jerseys concealed carry permit holders surging from a tiny pre-ruling base to more than 58,000 and Hawaiis total climbing from virtually zero to about 4,000.
Contrary to Murphys prediction, violent crime has fallen in all six states since they were compelled to respect citizens right to carry. The murder rate in New Jersey, for example, fell from higher levels in prior years, with preliminary numbers suggesting it may drop to as low as two per 100,000 in 2025, a trend that hardly fits the Wild West imagery invoked by gun-control advocates.
A press release from New Jerseys attorney general even announced a historic decline in violent crime, though officials have been reluctant to credit the expansion of lawful carry as a contributing factor. Some observers, however, see a clear connection between more armed, law-abiding citizens and safer streets. Today, more than 58,000 law-abiding New Jerseyans can exercise their right to carry a firearm. And while some warned this would turn our streets into the Wild West, the reality has been far different, Republican New Jersey Assemblyman Greg Myhre said.
One of the easiest metrics to track is the behavior of permit holders themselves, and the numbers are devastating to the claim that concealed carriers are a public menace. States revoke licenses for firearm-related violations at rates measured in tiny fractions of a percent, indicating that abuses are extraordinarily rare among those who go through the legal process.
Police officers are widelyand rightlyregarded as among the most law-abiding professionals in the country, yet concealed handgun permit holders are even less likely to commit crimes than sworn officers. Permit holders are convicted for firearms offenses at just the rate at which police are convicted of comparable firearm-related crimes, a comparison that should give pause to anyone inclined to treat lawful carriers as a threat.
The data clearly show that concealed carry permit holders are among the safest and most responsible users of firearms, David Mustard, a distinguished professor at the University of Georgia who researches crime extensively, told RCI. Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith confirmed that this matches his experience with constitutional carry in Florida, saying, The data is clear: The vast majority of concealed carriers are among our most responsible residents, not the problem.
Despite the dire warnings from gun-control activists, surveys consistently show that a strong majority of street-level police officers support concealed handgun laws. Law enforcement professionals understand that self-defense is a key element of public safety, in part because they know from experience that they usually arrive only after criminals have already struck.
An extensive body of research finds that allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns reduces crime, particularly violent offenses where the victim is physically overmatched. This effect is especially pronounced for women, who often struggle to defend themselves against much larger and stronger men who can overpower them or flee more quickly.
While both men and women benefit from carrying a concealed handgun, CPRCs analysis indicates that each additional woman who carries reduces the murder rate for women by roughly more than an additional man carrying reduces the murder rate for men. That finding reinforces the moral argument at the heart of the conservative case for gun rights: denying vulnerable people the means of self-defense does not make them safer; it simply makes them easier targets.
Too often, women who are being stalked or threatened are told to limit their movements, alter their routines, or rely on a piece of paper to stop someone determined to harm them, Robyn Sandoval, the president of A Girl & A Gun, told RCI. Women deserve better than living in fear. By learning to responsibly carry a firearm, they can gain the confidence and means to protect themselves and live their lives without fear.
For sheriffs like Wayne Ivey of Brevard County, Florida, that logic is not theoretical but grounded in daily reality. Every day, more law-abiding citizens choose to legally carry firearms because they refuse to be victimized by criminals and thugs, Ivey told RCI. Responsible gun owners know that even the best police response times takes minutes, while violent criminals can take a life in seconds!
Taken together, the survey data, crime statistics, and real-world stories from women like Coote and Bodiford point toward a conclusion that many on the left are reluctant to acknowledge: empowering responsible citizens to exercise their Second Amendment rights is not a threat to public safety but a vital component of it. As more states embrace constitutional carry and more Americansespecially minorities and womenchoose to arm themselves, the evidence increasingly suggests that a society which trusts its citizens with freedom is not only more just, but also measurably safer.
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