Philadelphia concealed carry permit
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It didn’t surprise me a bit to learn that license-to-carry applications in Philadelphia have risen over the past year. First, you have the constant reports of shootings, carjackings and other violent crimes in the city. Second, the Philadelphia Police Department made it dramatically easier to apply for a license to carry, starting in January 2021. But I wasn’t exactly ready for just how big this increase has been. And neither was the Philadelphia Police Department, it seems.

“When I saw how high the numbers were, I had to call our stats department to make sure they were right,” police department spokesperson Jasmine Reilly told me after I requested the data.

From 2017 through 2020, the number of license-to-carry applications in Philadelphia held about steady, ranging between 11,049 and 11,814 applications each year. But in 2021, 70,789 people applied for licenses to carry guns.

In other words, license-to-carry applications more than sextupled last year. And in January of this year, the number of applications continued its upward trajectory. (The Pennsylvania State Police publish an annual report showing the number of licenses issued in the counties surrounding Philadelphia as well as in the rest of the state, but a spokesperson for PSP says that data isn’t yet available for 2021.)

— Victor Fiorillo in License-to-Carry Applications Have Skyrocketed In Philly — Even More Than You’d Think

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

49 COMMENTS

    • Well yes it has always been bad but even my family down there in total denial of reality have noticed it is getting worse and they ignored the various riots and protests of the last decade post Zimmerman.

  2. I wonder when the backlog will start and approvals approach NFA stamp times, by design…

  3. Gee, it sounds like people tend to adapt to their circumstances as best as they can. Go figure.

    Sort of like two days ago (midweek) when my local grocery store had NO frozen peas, carrots, peas-and-carrots, nor mixed vegetables. And no lactose-free milk. (That has ever happened before.) I simply searched for other grocery stores who still had stock on those items.

  4. Those applicants are law abiding citizens.
    However, its BS that anyone should need a permission slip to exercise a Constitutional Right.
    Shall Not Be Infringed, and yet the Second Amendment is the most infringed right of all of them.
    Then you got the Thugs who do exercise there right to bear arms regardless of the law.
    Are We Having Fun Yet?

    • WTF , why was “rat to bare arms” highlighted blue????
      Okay, I see how this is going to play out.

      • LOL.
        When I read your comment I immediately thought of the comic strip “Pearls Before Swine”.

      • I’ll be gawddamn go to hell, I clicked on that blue link just to see where it would go and it went to a buy gunm insurance add, bwhahahaaha- double -bwhahahaaha .
        Shall Not Be Infringed.
        Who is it sings them lyrics, -Panterra? ” pushing, keep on pushing ”
        Wont be long just watch and see
        How the fellas lay their money down.
        when a right becomes a privilege that is controlled by money, that’s a bad bad thing, that insurance stuff, ehhh your all in so K .
        It was a good shoot
        It was a bad shoot
        Your insurance coverage ain’t got the money OJ spent

        • Oh n fck dacian
          I’m on a rant- – That insurance thing, I remember when this state didn’t require motor vehicle insurance, it was up to you to make up the cost. Nobody could do it cause, cause, shts way to high. *Insurance*
          Now to operate a Legal motor vehicle, you MUST HAVE , ,License, Registration, and proof of INSURANCE.
          The most anti- gunm lobbyist are the ones who make $$$ off gunms.

      • “…highlighted blue…”

        Likely somebody at the TTAG office has a boat payment coming up, and is a mite short of coin. Click away folks, send ’em some eyeballs and support the cause.

  5. Philly had over 120 reported carjackings just for January 2022. It appears that criminals in the Philadelphia area have embraced the challenge thrown down by other Blue cities to up their game for 2022…after all, it is an election year. AntiFa and BLM opportunists will be starting their mostly peaceful rampages as soon as Primary season gets rolling along.*

    *due to the exorbitant cost of gasoline, the AntiFa and BLM funding sites are requesting donations starting by the quart.
    note: all donations are tax-deductible under their organizations 501(c) status.

    Seriously: the increased applications reflects more than any random, biased “poll” exactly how the citizens of Philly feel about their current state of affairs.

    • Old Guy in Montana,

      “due to the exorbitant cost of gasoline, the AntiFa and BLM funding sites are requesting donations starting by the quart.”

      And further requesting those donations in glass bottles with rags for “stoppers” to reduce spillage.

      • Hey now it’s not that bad re lawsuits, now being towed or booted on the other hand……….

  6. In my comment above, I mentioned a first (local grocery store with no stock of common items midweek). I experienced another first when I went to another grocery store.

    That other grocery store is in a sort-of rural location, adjacent to a small-town farming community about 10 miles outside of a city of about 120,000 residents. I was loading my groceries onto the conveyor belt at the cashier when I heard a man yell something in a booming-loud voice, audible through the entire store. When the man persisted in yelling–including obscenities–I stopped loading my groceries and spent the next 90 seconds waiting to see if he was going to attack anyone. He appeared to go outside so I finished loading/paying for my groceries and proceeded carefully out the door. When I got outside, that man was about 30 feet away from the door and still yelling–and was buck-naked. Yes, he had taken off all of his clothes and was still yelling. I stationed myself there in case he decided to attack anyone. After about one minute, someone scooped up his clothes, grabbed him by the upper arm, and started marching him across the parking lot (still naked) beyond the grocery store property.

    This highlights two things. First, people tend to expect that sort of thing in a large city like, oh I don’t know, Philadelphia? Second, I never expected that sort of thing in a sort-of rural location–and yet it happened. That first factor–people expecting crazy in large cities–is why people in large cities are tooling up. That second factor–people seeing crazy for the first time in rural areas–is why people in rural areas are tooling up. In other words, crazy is exploding everywhere and that is why people are tooling up everywhere.

    • The small town closest to where I live had its first case of PCP use between Christmas and New Year’s. The local Deputies were able to get him restrained and into the hospital without injury, but such issues are rare in very rural and quite conservative areas like this. Would have expected such things to happen down toward the beach in the tourist areas, or over in Mobile or Pensacola. Not out here in the middle of no where.
      Small local grocer has managed to keep shelves stocked but noticed the big chain where my kids live has had a lot of empty shelves.

    • Wow,,,,,,why the heck would you get naked?
      (click, click)
      Well brain wise I’m thinking, He’s fed up with the goings on and shed his clothes=(restrictions, social norms, adherence and acceptance),to free himself of the bs he cant control.
      Fcked up or not, drugs is just a precursor.

  7. Looks like people in Philly are beginning to realize they can’t depend on police protection with the increase in violent crime. Just wonder how long it will be until someone kills some punk but because of a difference in skin tone, some activist/race baiter will stir up the faux outrage and demand the law abiding be disarmed. While the criminals just steal or otherwise continue to arm themselves.

  8. No one should have to come on blended knee to ask a government bureaucrat for permission to carry the means to protect oneself.

  9. From the linked article

    “The gun-carrying resident I spoke with didn’t bother appealing. He has a history of minor drug violations, a DUI, and various summary and misdemeanor offenses and says he’s more concerned about his personal safety than whether the police say he’s allowed to carry a gun.”

    Almost all drug convictions in PA are prohibiting, and a significant percentage of DUIs are too, depending on the details. A well known PA gun rights attorney has publicly stated that he has to have the specific details of a DUI and consult 5 law books to determine if it is prohibiting.

    So your “source” for data on carrying without a license is a career criminal who is almost certainly a prohibited person who cannot legally even own a gun? Is he the dealer you buy your weed from, hippy?

    • I’ve heard a lot of drug dealers say the same thing. Just because they are the dregs of the earth doesn’t mean they should be denied their natural right to self-defense.

    • Pennsylvania isn’t even a pain to deal with permit wise comparatively. Unrestricted constitutional carry would be better of course but would love to have Pennsylvania pistol laws over here but we are fighting with the other worst states for a spot in the 3 ring circus.

      • Try up here in the fourth ring we call canuckistan, the true north, strong and free…ish.

  11. When the DA is Soros-backed, crime skyrockets because he does nothing to punish crime. He’s lost 261 attorneys from a staff of 340, so even his subordinates know he’s worthless. He denies there’s a crime wave despite being a major cause of it. The people aren’t all stupid and will seek to protect themselves when government fails.

  12. So anybody want to bet that a 600% increase in license-to-carry applications, even if successful, will have any appreciable effect of gun crime?? Because it will not! If that was the case then there would be NO bloody guin crime in the USA.
    If the bad guy or gal has a gun on you GIVE him or her you bloody wallet. You are not elfin Rambo who would have, in any case, have lasted about ten seconds in a real combat situation. 99% of you are rank and unskilled amateurs and no pro’s because pro’s would do EXACTLY as I said until such time as an absolute advantage presented itself. True pros know how to duck and weave and practice hours doing so. No matter how long you have spent out on the bloody range with a handgun reality is a far different animal.
    If the bad guys first intent was to shoot you he of she would do just that.
    All YOU will do by going for your gun is turn a first intent to rob into an intent to elfin well KILL if only in self defence. Anything else is bullshit put about by the US Arms industry.
    Do a bit of real research and you will find that the increase in ‘victims’ of gun-crime’ in the USA are pretty much in proportion to the number of firearmd especially handguns in common use.
    The possession of illegal handguns is also pretty much in proportion to the numer of LEGALLY held items as well.
    It’s similar to the misonception in the USA that the DEATH PENALTY is deterent to homicide IT is NOT . The PUBLICALLY ADMINISTERED Death Penalty in the USA is not about punishment – it’s about REVENGE- pure and simple.

    • Well sir albert of nuttingham you are welcomed to go walking unarmed and looking stupid around Philly after dark. Let us know how it goes bozo.

      The death penalty is no.more than justice for the victim. You see azzhat…Had a murdered victim been armed you can bet your knickers the terrified victim would have used it and the murderer would be dead, dead, dead…anyway.

      The death penalty is a deterent and most important it is justice carried out on the behalf of the victim…Now you can go pound sand.

      • He is actually correct. Statistics indicate that only the individual felon is deterred by the death penalty. In fact, this has always been true. Criminals typically believe that they will not get caught, so they are not deterred, and people planning to bump off someone else are only deterred by an arrest. People committing crimes don’t consider the consequences of their actions. If they did, many would not commit their crimes in the first place.

        • The only thing about the death penalty we can say with absolute assurance is that it reduces recidivism.

    • Did it occur to you that, with the higher chance that potential victims will be armed, the less likely a criminal is to try to rob you? Sort off like how nuclear armed countries don’t generally go to war with eachother? If NK didn’t have nukes, you think the US wouldn’t have invaded by now?

      If sticking up a grocery store or doing a carjacking could mean getting shot, most criminals have a basic sense of self-preservation and will be less likely to do it.

      Almost all mass shootings in this country occur in “gun free zones” where normal people can’t carry guns. Almost all criminals are opportunistic predators looking for easy targets and quick scores. Add the fact that anyone may be carrying a gun and that complicates things for your local scumbag. Also, some criminals will undoubtedly get shot and either die, or be arrested, thereby ending their criminal careers. Meaning that the more people carry, the more dead or incarcerated criminals you end up with, and many more are dissuaded from overtly violent crimes that carry high risk.

      • Lil’d is upset those greedy capitalvanians won’t pay their reparations for the social crimes.

        Thomas Sowell would rip lil’d’s views to shreds in seconds. Look up his video on the myths of slavery. Blacks were enslaving other blacks. White people stayed on coast and just did the buying and transportation.

        • Southern,

          Thomas Sowell is truly one of our great national treasures, along with Milton Friedman, and Victor Davis Hanson. Glad you approve of him!! Putting dacian the stupid up against a giant like Thomas Sowell would be equivalent to putting a six month old baby in a pen of rabid pit bulls – short, bloody, and nasty. Hell, I kick dacian and MinorIQ’s @$$es all the time, and I am far from a Thomas Sowell. You hardly need Sowell-level intelligence to embarrass the pathetic likes of dacian and MinorIQ – I doubt they have four active brain cells between them, and their “education” is apparently limited to memorizing stupid Leftist/fascist talking points.

    • (Royal) Albert “Subject” Hall (you need a better handle, idjit),

      Ever been “fisked”, you pathetic non-entity of a subject? Well, get ready, ’cause it’s goin’ down.

      “So anybody want to bet that a 600% increase in license-to-carry applications, even if successful, will have any appreciable effect of gun crime?? Because it will not!” No s***, Sherlock. IF you had been paying attention, you would be aware that that is one of OUR points – more law-abiding citizens carrying guns is NOT going to cause any statistically-significant increase in shootings. Thanks for admitting the obvious (and one of our central arguments)! (Now, let’s wait and see, once “constitutional carry” becomes more widespread (we’re already up to 23 states), what effect THAT has!)

      “Because it will not! If that was the case then there would be NO bloody guin crime in the USA.” Again, thanks for validating our arguments, you cretin. The goblins will have guns DESPITE your idiot “common sense gun control”; we simply want the right to LEGALLY be on an even playing field, you pathetic wanker. And don’t rule out the possibility that, as concealed carry increases with the increase in “constitutional carry” states, goblins might become more restrained – NOT because of absurd firearms laws, but out of the very real risk that someone will pull their gat and end them. I know which way I’m betting.

      “If the bad guy or gal has a gun on you GIVE him or her you bloody wallet.” And you know that giving them your wallet is going to end the confrontation without further violence HOW, exactly???? Because Moms Against told you it would??? Since at least a substantial minority of such miscreants are engaging in such crime to support their drug habits, you are willing to rely on this?? Let me know how that works out for you.
      “You are not elfin Rambo who would have, in any case, have lasted about ten seconds in a real combat situation.” “Elfin Rambo”???? WTF??? Well, at 6’4″, 220lbs, I’m hardly “elfin”, nor do I think I am any “Rambo” (remember, you buffoon, that “Rambo” is a fictitious character in a Hollywood fantasty??? Or are you as stupid as you sound?).

      “99% of you are rank and unskilled amateurs and no pro’s because pro’s would do EXACTLY as I said until such time as an absolute advantage presented itself.” And most criminals are trained professionals, you complete oxygen thief??? And what is your basis for this brilliant insight??? Most people I know who carry do FAR more shooting and practice than the average cop (if you want a real treat, go look up the “qualification” requirements for LEOs – most departments require at most 50-100 rounds per month. I shoot 5 or 10 times that every trip to the range.). OF COURSE, you look for an advantage before acting – MOST of us are actually trained to do exactly that. Ever heard of “situational awareness”, dumb@$$??? I don’t walk down dark alleys (or streets) late at night in sketchy neighborhoods, and I am ALWAYS aware of other people on the street, even in “decent” neighborhoods. Of course, “subjects” don’t need to exercise normal caution, ’cause your mum the Queen takes care of you 24/7, right??

      “No matter how long you have spent out on the bloody range with a handgun reality is a far different animal.” Again, what is your evidence that the average street punk (the actual perpetrators of the VAST majority of actual “gun crime”) has ever learned or practiced these skills?? Citation, please?? And if you think most of us just go to the “bloody range”, and don’t also practice tac drills, you’re a bigger moron than I thought you were. Pro tip, subject – there is this thing called “tactical training”, and many (most?) of us do it regularly. The outdoor range I frequent has a “shoot house”, and I try to work it at least once a month, usually for most of a day. Again, where is your support for this IMPLIED (you’re too much of a coward to assert this openly) idea that street punk criminals are some sort of hyper-trained supercriminals??? That’s as stupid as your other idiot ideas. Look up the statistics on number of shots fired (by cops AND criminals) in the average “shootout”, vs. number of actual hits. Police training standards are pathetic, but they are FAR better than the actual training of most street thugs. Training for punk criminals mostly doesn’t exist. Frankly, I like my chances – definitely a HELL of a lot more than the “give them your wallet and they’ll leave you alone” school of thought. Jeebus, apparently you Brits have devolved mightily since Winston!!

      “All YOU will do by going for your gun is turn a first intent to rob into an intent to elfin well KILL if only in self defence.” So, a street punk has a right to self-defense, and I don’t?? Now THAT is some class A subject thinking, right there. Why is the street punk entitled to self-defense, and I am not?? Sod off, swampy.

      “All YOU will do by going for your gun is turn a first intent to rob into an intent to elfin well KILL if only in self defence. Anything else is bullshit put about by the US Arms industry.” First of all, dimwit, the “US Arms industry” makes no such claims, nor is there such a thing as a monolithic “US Arms industry”. Second, what is with this “elfin” nonsense??? Were you attacked by leprechauns, or something??? If you mean “effin'”, then use the correct term, you useless tw**. Again, what is your evidence for this amazing proficiency at firearm combat you are attributing to street punks??? Cite your source. Based upon ACTUAL knowledge of average accuracy of both LEOs and street punks, I still like my chances.

      “Do a bit of real research and you will find that the increase in ‘victims’ of gun-crime’ in the USA are pretty much in proportion to the number of firearmd especially handguns in common use.” Again, citation, please??? Or did you pull that out of your arse??? Several points, even if your “observation” had any basis in reality (hint, it does not). “Correlation does not equal causation.” Is it not equally likely that the increase in gun purchases is a RESULT of a recognized increase in street crime?? Would not the BurnLootMurder/Antifa crime, arson, looting and rioting for over a year have created a real and natural concern on the part of average citizens?? Any data on TIMING, you complete idiot??? Did the gun purchases come before or AFTER the blue cities in America supporting a year of BurnLootMurder “mostly peaceful” riots???? Or are you too stupid to think that deep??

      “The possession of illegal handguns is also pretty much in proportion to the numer of LEGALLY held items as well.” I call bullshit!! Cite your source, or STFU. We have NO IDEA how many “illegal handguns” are out there, dumb@$$, BECAUSE they’re ILLEGAL. What a dips*** you are.

      You have “elevated” yourself to the level of MinorIQ and dacian the stupid; you are too stupid to insult. If you actually ARE a Brit (and most here doubt it), thank God you’re not one of us. We have enough home-grown Leftist/fascist, gormless, d***less idiots (like MinorIQ and dacian the stupid) to need a limp-wristed p***y of your ilk around. Stay in Old Blighty, wank your crank, and ask your Queen to take care of you; we’ll get on with the business of being citizens. P*** off, subject. Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.

    • Good Lord amighty, no wonder your grandaddys grandads gave these frothing at the mouth, hand and window licking retards the boot.

  13. oh. my brain read that permit costs went up 600%.
    i was looking for some astronomical figure and wondering how the comments were relevant.

    • Please don’t give the city any ideas or they’ll jump the price while muttering about “supply and demand” as if that applies.

  14. We did the math once for our state of Florida. Number of carry permits, surveys on how many people actually carry, mix of residents vs non-residents, etc. Factored in number of people the average person interacts with daily (within speaking distance of 12 feet).
    Result: Every 7th person you encounter in Florida is armed. This adds up to about 12 people on a typical work day. Unless you are in a customer service field (like retail or restaurant) then it jumps to nearly 30.

    You might stand near 30 armed people daily without knowing it, and it has no effect on your life.

    • Smart criminals (well, ok, “less ignorant”) go for the low hanging fruit. They want to go home intact and unscathed too, and they know that attempting to convert an armed person into a victim increases the chance that they may not go home. Once the memo goes out at their next union meeting, that more and more of us are armed, and we don’t carry signs advertising who is whom, I would expect petty crime rates to go down. There may be a quick uptick in DGUs as the more ignorant play bull-headed and get Darwinized, but they will soon realize there is less low hanging fruit available these days. Who knows, they may even begin to eat their own.

      Speaking of more ignorant, I recently saw a panhandler sitting against a signpost at a busy intersection in a nearby city, holding a piece of cardboard that had something like “Need food, out of work” written on it. Problem was, the signpost he was sitting against had a sign on it for the McDonalds joint across the sidewalk. “We’re hiring! $14/hour and $300 cash signing bonus!” Bet he had slim pickings that day.

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