New study says more permissible concealed carry law states have higher handgun homicide rates

You don't even see the gun until you're shot!

A very interesting study out of Boston University says that states with more permissive concealed carry laws seem to have higher rates of handgun-related homicides.

Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web-Based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting Systems database, the researchers mapped out the relationship between changes in state concealed-carry permitting laws over time and total firearm-related homicide rates between 1991 and 2015. They also examined the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports Supplemental Homicide Reports (SHR) to differentiate between handgun and long-gun homicides. Previous studies have only examined homicide by all firearms.

The researchers found that "shall issue" laws were associated with a 6.5 percent higher total homicide rate than "may issue" laws, as well as an 8.6 percent higher firearm homicide rate and a 10.6 percent higher handgun homicide rate. The researchers found no impact of shall-issue laws on long-gun shootings.

Researchers explained that they hoped this kind of data might help lawmakers craft safer gun laws and more specifically the conservative dream of creating federal concealed carry reciprocity laws by which states with laissez faire gun laws would have the right to tread on everybody else.