MORE GUNS, LESS CRIME: America Had a Come-to-Jesus Moment About Armed Self-Defense in the Last Five Years.

Gun control advocates are losing the public-carry culture war. Seventy percent of gun owners now report at least “some circumstances in which they carry a handgun for self-defense,” up from 56% in the original survey.

That doesn’t necessarily reflect public carry, since some may carry only on private property. Still, the new report estimates that 33.6 million Americans are “public carriers” — that is, they have a concealed carry permit and carry for self-defense “at least sometimes.” That’s a remarkable 60% increase in five years.

What could possibly explain this?

The original survey ran from Feb. 17 to March 23, 2021. Much has changed in the public-carry landscape over the last five years.

One of those changes is a lot less violent crime. Correlation isn’t causation, of course, but predictions that increased public-carry would lead more violence certainly didn’t come true.