Mar 25 2006
CHL Percentages, Red And Blue
I mentioned this before, uh, in September. But I didn’t look at the data by red v. blue state, and it gets interesting (hat tip to Blog O’ Stuff — I’m reproducing more or less the whole thing, since I’m afraid it will go away).
Here are the states, and the percentages of the eligible population who have CHLs for each.
|
%-age
|
Red/Blue
|
State
|
| 7.45% |
Red
|
South Dakota |
| 6.79% |
Red
|
Indiana |
| 6.76% |
Blue
|
Pennsylvania |
| 5.23% |
Blue
|
Connecticut |
| 5.12% |
Blue
|
Washington |
| 4.34% |
Red
|
Idaho |
| 4.10% |
Red
|
Utah |
| 3.86% |
Blue
|
Oregon |
| 3.45% |
Red
|
Tennessee |
| 3.15% |
Red
|
Alabama |
| 2.72% |
Red
|
Florida |
| 2.71% |
Red
|
Kentucky |
| 2.67% |
Red
|
Wyoming |
| 2.41% |
Blue
|
Maine |
| 2.18% |
Red
|
Arkansas |
| 2.11% |
Red
|
Virginia |
| 1.94% |
Red
|
West Virginia |
| 1.76% |
Red
|
Arizona |
| 1.75% |
Red
|
Oklahoma |
| 1.70% |
Red
|
Montana |
| 1.70% |
Blue
|
Michigan |
| 1.62% |
Red
|
Texas |
| 1.39% |
Red
|
South Carolina |
| 1.34% |
Red
|
North Dakota |
| 1.00% |
Red
|
North Carolina |
| 0.86% |
Red
|
Mississippi |
| 0.62% |
Red
|
Louisiana |
| 0.58% |
Red
|
Nevada |
| 0.45% |
Blue
|
Minnesota |
| 0.36% |
Red
|
Missouri |
| 0.33% |
Red
|
Ohio |
| 0.20% |
Red
|
Colorado |
| 0.17% |
Red
|
New Mexico |
Let’s look at demographics by state type and license type (for those of you who don’t understand the distinctions, true right to carry states are those that require no licenses, Vermont and Alaska; shall issue states are those in which law enforcement have no power to deny you a license if you pass background checks; may issue states are those in which law enforcement may deny you a license even if you do pass background checks; and no issue states are those in which you may not legally carry a firearm).
|
Red
|
Blue
|
|
| Total licensees among the Shall Issue states: |
1,870,368
|
1,208,878
|
| Total population living in True Right To Carry states: |
648,818
|
619,107
|
| Total population living in Shall Issue states: |
141,766,564
|
43,272,643
|
| Total population living in May Issue states: |
2,944,062
|
78,406,558
|
| Total population living in No Issue states: |
4,462,798
|
18,125,843
|
First note that there are far more gun licenses in blue, shall issue states than I would have imagined (1,870,368 and 1,208,878 for red and blue, respectively). Yet, there are over three times as many people living in red shall-issue states as there are in blue shall-issue states (141,766,564 and 43,272,643, for red and blue, respectively). This indicates that proportionally, there are far more gun licenses in blue shall issue states than there are in red shall-issue states. I find this fascinating, since I would have predicted the reverse.
Is this because blue states tend to have higher crime rates, or is it something else? (See About the stats.)
4 responses so far
4 Responses to “CHL Percentages, Red And Blue”
Pennsylvania is probably blue like Washington and Oregon - only in the cities where two-thirds of the population lives. Out here in the sticks everyone I know carries. I guess that means the city folk don’t.
It is, though rural Pennsylvania is very sparsely populated. Indiana has enough rural population to offset the effect of its urban areas; Philadelphia has 43% of the population in Pennsylvania. And since Philly is may issue, that would almost double the percentage of CHL holders in the state.
I just had wine with dinner so I can’t do the math but I figure almost 4% of the 3 million Oregonians is 120,000. Actually more than two-thirds - 2.5 million - live in the Portland-Eugene corridor and not many carry. Just say 100,000 of the half million rural dwellers carry. That makes it one in five carry out here in the sticks. Sounds about right just from observation. Of course that’s not counting the unregistered guns carried by gang-bangers in the cities. And us hicks have all sorts of non-handguns. Maybe it’s time for a revolution. ;)
Heh, I’m a Portlander who carries. It’s definitely a significantly lower percentage than the rest of the state, but I’ve recently been surprised to find out that certain friends own guns when I wouldn’t have guessed that of them. I think the whole thing is a little more hush hush in general to avoid alarming the tofu-eating hippies around here.