Florida’s permitless carry law has been in effect for almost six months now. It’s too early for statewide data, but I looked up a couple of cities that report their data regularly. At this time last year, Miami had 84 homicides. This year it is at 74. For Jacksonville, it was 159 at this time last year compared to 145 this year.
We’ll have to wait for statewide data of course, but so far, the usual predictions of a huge surge in homicides due to permitless carry haven’t panned out.
To be clear, I’m not claiming that permitless carry is why homicide is falling. Rather, I don’t think it makes much of a difference in crime rates overall, even if it anecdotally may help some people.
Criminals who commit most homicides were already carrying illegally anyway. Permitless carry didn’t change that at all.
Konstadinos Moros is an Associate Attorney with Michel & Associates, a law firm in Long Beach that regularly represents the California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA) in its litigation efforts to restore the Second Amendment in California. You can find him on his Twitter handle @MorosKostas. To donate to CRPA or become a member, visit https://crpa.org/.
This post was adapted by TTAG from tweets posted by Konstadinos Moros.
