Survey: More Americans Are Carrying Concealed Guns |
Concealed Carry
Survey: More Americans Are Carrying Concealed Guns
Three in 10 Americans at least occasionally carry a firearm.
J.D. Tuccille | 6.19.2026 7:00 AM
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Firearms sales went through the roof during COVID and 2020's social unrest as people scrambled to deal with a world that seemed to be coming apart at the seams. Previously thought of—with a great deal of exaggeration—as the domain of white male rural-dwellers, gun ownership became increasingly diverse as women and minorities acquired the means of self-defense. A recent survey finds that many people among the growing ranks of gun owners are carrying their tools for protection.
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Concealed Carry Became More Common Since 2024
"In the survey, 13.2% carry all/most of the time, with another 16.6% carrying sometimes/rarely," the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) announced last month of the results of a survey conducted by McLaughlin & Associates. "The percent who carry all or most [of] the time is virtually the same as the percent who carried similarly in December 2024. But the percent who carry at [least] some of the time or rarely has increase[d] by 5.4 percentage points (from 11.2% to 16.6%). So the total who are carrying increased by 5.5 percentage points (from 24.3% to 29.8%)."
As you might expect, needing permission to carry a weapon, in the form of a concealed-carry permit, reduces the rate at which residents of such states carry relative to those in constitutional carry states where no permits are required. But 25.98 percent of survey........