Concealed Carry Laws and Impacts on Law Enforcement

police.pdf (application/pdf Object) The debate about concealed carry will continue, and not just in Illinois and Wisconsin. Here at least is scholarly article that addresses one of the straw men the Left is always going on about. Do concealed carry laws put law enforcement officers at risk?

Although some people oppose shall-issue laws because they believe the laws endanger the officers’ lives, there is no evidence for that belief. After controlling for an array of
factors, including trends before and after the law went into effect, I show that states that enact concealed carry laws are less likely to have a felonious police death and more likely to have lower rates of felonious police deaths after the law is passed. This result is statistically significant in seven of the nine specifications, and the difference between the before and after trends is significant in over half the specifications. Although point estimates show that the same qualitative results are true for felonious police deaths due to handguns, the results are statistically significant in only about one-quarter of the specifications. Also, the before and after trends in the shall-issue variable are statistically different in about half of the specifications. Furthermore, those who believe allowing private citizens to carry concealed weapons will endanger the lives of law enforcement officials do not even have anecdotal evidence to support their position. To date, we have no examples of lawabiding citizens with concealed weapons permits assaulting police officers. In contrast, there is at least one example of such a citizen coming to the aid of an officer.

Concealed carry laws don't put officers at risk because only very law-abiding citizens get permits to carry. The criminals are not eligible for permits, but ignore the law and carry weapons anyway.

It is always nice to be able to treat the hysteria with a cold dose of reality.[Hat tip to Pro-Gun Progressive]