Restrictions on Carrying Concealed Weapons

States can prohibit concealed handguns, as this type of law has been shown to reduce the rate of violent crime.¹

Does the state have statutes prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons?

States that prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons receive a "meets policy." States that only limit a resident's ability to carry a concealed weapon receive a "limited policy," and states that do not have any policies to limit the carrying of concealed weapons receive a "no policy."

The 2010 Report Card uses a different source for this indicator than in 2007, therefore there is no comparison to 2007.

State	Strength of Policy	Change from 2007
Alabama	Limited Policy	N/A
Alaska	No Policy	N/A
Arizona	No Policy	N/A
Arkansas	No Policy	N/A
California	Limited Policy	N/A
Colorado	No Policy	N/A
Connecticut	Limited Policy	N/A
Delaware	Limited Policy	N/A
District of Columbia	Meets Policy	N/A
Florida	No Policy	N/A
Georgia	No Policy	N/A
Hawaii	Limited Policy	N/A
Idaho	No Policy	N/A
Illinois	Meets Policy	N/A
Indiana	No Policy	N/A
Iowa	Limited Policy	N/A
Kansas	No Policy	N/A
Kentucky	No Policy	N/A
Louisiana	No Policy	N/A
Maine	No Policy	N/A
Maryland	Limited Policy	N/A
Massachusetts	Limited Policy	N/A
Michigan	No Policy	N/A
Minnesota	No Policy	N/A
Mississippi	No Policy	N/A
Missouri	No Policy	N/A
Montana	No Policy	N/A
Nebraska	No Policy	N/A
Nevada	No Policy	N/A
New Hampshire	No Policy	N/A
New Jersey	Limited Policy	N/A
New Mexico	No Policy	N/A
New York	Limited Policy	N/A
North Carolina	No Policy	N/A
North Dakota	No Policy	N/A
Ohio	No Policy	N/A
Oklahoma	No Policy	N/A
Oregon	No Policy	N/A
Pennsylvania	No Policy	N/A
Rhode Island	Limited Policy	N/A
South Carolina	No Policy	N/A
South Dakota	No Policy	N/A
Tennessee	No Policy	N/A
Texas	No Policy	N/A
Utah	No Policy	N/A
Vermont	No Policy	N/A
Virginia	No Policy	N/A
Washington	No Policy	N/A
West Virginia	No Policy	N/A
Wisconsin	Meets Policy	N/A
Wyoming	Limited Policy	N/A

Policy Indicator Counts

Meets Policy:

3

Limited Policy:

12

Weak Policy:

0

No/Harmful Policy:

36

Better:

0

Same:

0

Worse:

0

Data Source: Legal Community Against Violence, "Regulating Guns in America," 2008, available at: http://www.lcav.org/publications-briefs/regulating_guns.asp, accessed September 10, 2010; Legal Community Against Violence, "Recent Developments in State Law, Firearms Policy," updated March 10, 2010, available at http://www.lcav.org/content/recent_developments_policies.asp, accessed Septmeber 10, 2010; Legal Community Against Violence, "Recent Developments in State Law," updated June 20, 2010, available at http://www.lcav.org/states/recent_developments.asp, accessed September 10, 2010.

Footnotes

¹ Ian Ayres and John J. Donohue, Stanford Law Review “Shooting Down the ‘More Guns, Less Crime’ Hypothesis,” (Stanford: Stanford Law School, April 16, 2003), 1194-1299, available at http://islandia.law.yale.edu/ayers/Ayres_Donohue_article.pdf, accessed September 24, 2010.