Right To Carry Research Articles

Stand-off concealed firearm detection using motion tracking and convolutional neural networks

<p>The standoff detection of concealed firearms is crutial in managing public security in public spaces. Currently employed standoff concealed weapon detection techniques employ electromagnetic wave imaging which has been found to be extremely slow and may require expensive hardware and may not be applicable in public open spaces. Inorder to maintain safety in open spaces, artificial intelligence enabled video surveillance systems have been widely adopted. This poses an opportunity to explore video surveillance cameras as concealed weapon detectors. A review of existing video surveillance based automated weapon detection approaches discovered that the focus was on the detection of unconcealed firearms leaving a gap in the detection of concealed firearms. This study addresses the aforementioned gap by providing a standoff concealed firearm detection approach on video based on skeletal-based human motion tracking and convolutional neural networks. The motion of armed and unarmed persons was tracked using a depth camera and further classified using convolutional neural networks model. The developed model reported 100% accuracy, precision and recall scores. These results outperformed results obtained from traditional machine learning models therefore highlighting the superior capability of the proposed approach for concealed firearm detection on video to complement the efforts of human video surveillance operators.</p>

Examining the effect of permit-less carry laws on violent crime rates in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, and Wyoming

In recent years, many states have loosened regulations regarding carrying a concealed firearm. Permit-less carry laws allow citizens who are legally allowed to own firearms to carry a concealed firearm in public without obtaining a permit. This trend is an evolution of right-to-carry legislation that swept the United States beginning in the late 1980s. Research tends to find that right-to-carry laws increase violent crime. This study examines the effect of permit-less carry laws, independent of right-to-carry laws, on violent crime rates in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, and Wyoming, the first states to adopt permit-less carry legislation, using a 50 state panel data set from years 1995 to 2019. The synthetic control method was employed to find that permit-less carry laws were associated with an increase in aggravated assault in Alaska but generally not associated with variations in violent crime rates in the other states. In sum, moving from right-to-carry to permit-less carry was not found to cause an additional increase in violence on top of existing right-to-carry laws.

Concealed firearm carrying laws and defensive firearm use in public locations of US metropolitan areas, 1986–2004

ObjectivesThere has been extensive debate in the USA as to how laws regulating the carrying of concealed firearms affect crime and public safety. This study examines whether US state laws...

Concealed Handgun License Laws and Concealed Handgun License Adoption, 2002–2019

IntroductionNational-level data suggest that gun owners in the United States carry concealed weapons in public at growing rates. This research investigates whether these trends are associated with state adoption of more permissive concealed carry licensing laws between 2002-2019. MethodsData was obtained from 31 U.S. states from 2002-2019. State-level rates of licenses issued, denied, and newly issued per 100,000 residents were calculated and compared across three state legal categories: 1) states that banned carrying concealed weapons and adopted a shall-issue law, 2) states with a may-issue law that adopted a shall-issue law and 3) states that made no changes to concealed carry licensing laws. Difference-in-differences methods were used to compare the rate of licenses newly issued and denied in ban to shall-issue states relative to states with no concealed carry licensing law change during the study timeframe. Data were analyzed in 2022-23. ResultsStates that transitioned from a ban on concealed weapons carrying to shall-issue laws were positively associated (2-6%, SE=.11-.13) with additional new licenses relative to states that did not enact concealed carry licensing law changes. Ban to shall-issue law changes were also associated with denial of substantially more licenses (75-85%, SE=.24-.23). Further, states that transitioned from may-issue to shall-issue laws awarded fewer licenses than those transitioning from a concealed weapons ban to shall-issue laws. ConclusionsState-level concealed carry licensing may inform public health and safety policies as large restrictive U.S. states transition to more permissive concealed carry licensing laws.

Trends in pediatric firearm-related injuries and disparities in acute outcomes.

Firearm-related injuries (FRI) are an increasing cause of death and injury in children. The etiology for this rise is multifactorial and includes socioeconomic factors. Despite its prevalence and documented increase over COVID-19, there is a paucity of research on disparities and the influence of social determinants of health (SDH) in pediatric FRI. This study aims to explore the epidemiology of this vulnerable population in Atlanta, trends over time and relevant dates such as COVID-19 and a state firearm law, and disparities in clinical outcomes. Retrospective cohort of patients with FRI (0-20 years-old, x̄=9.8, Median = 11) presenting to our hospital EDs from January 2014 to April 2023 (N = 701) and eligible for the Trauma Registry. This period includes two major events, namely the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020), and passage of state law Constitutional Carry Act (SB 319) (April 2022), allowing for permit-less concealed firearm carry. Single series interrupted time series (ITS) models were run and clinical outcome differences between race and insurance groups were calculated unadjusted and adjusted for confounders using inverse propensity treatment weights (IPTW). The primary outcome was mortality; secondary are admission and discharge. Majority of FRI involved patients who were male (76.7%), Black (74.9%), publicly insured (82.6%), ≤12 years-old (61.8%), and injured by unintentional shootings (45.6%) or assault (43.7%). During COVID-19, there was a sustained increase in FRI rate by 0.42 patients per 1,000 trauma visits per month (95% CI 0.02-0.82, p = 0.042); post-SB 319 it was 2.3 patients per 1,000 trauma visits per month (95% CI 0.23-4.31, p = 0.029). Publicly insured patients had 58% lower odds of mortality than privately insured patients (OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.18-0.99, p = 0.047). When controlled for race and mechanism of injury, among other confounding factors, this association was not significant (p = 0.652). Pediatric FRI are increasing over time, with disproportionate burdens on Black patients, at our hospitals. Disparities in mortality based on insurance necessitate further study. As social and economic repercussions of COVID-19 are still present, and state firearm law SB 319 is still in effect, assessment of ongoing trends is warranted to inform preventative strategies.

A mirror of political ideology: undergraduates’ attitudinal drivers on implemented campus carry

Campus carry, which allows individuals possessing a license (or, more recently, a right) to carry concealed firearms to legally bring them onto public university campuses, was implemented in Texas in 2016, but it has remained a contested issue at The University of Texas at Austin. Based on a survey of undergraduates (N = 1,204) conducted in spring 2019, this paper examines predictors of support and opposition for the policy, including gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, political affiliation and ideology, length of time lived in Texas, and pro-gun legal attitudes. The study found that attitudes were profoundly driven by the political views of the students. Their gender and pro-gun legal attitudes also had significance, whereas many other variables identified by previous research did not. The study contributes to an understanding of campus carry attitudes in situations where it is not only planned or a distant hypothetical but already in effect and impacting students’ lives.

Exploring Student, Faculty, and Staff Support for Concealed Firearms on Campus Over Time

Campus carry has become an important issue in higher education. This study examines how stakeholder attitudes changed in the period following the legalization of campus carry in one rural state. The data for the study were drawn from two electronic surveys administered to separate random samples of students, faculty, and staff at one university in 2015 and 2018. This study addresses two research questions. Do patterns in attitudes toward concealed campus carry change over time in the period following the legalization of campus carry? Do the predictors of support for campus carry change over time? The results suggest that support for concealed carry was higher among students than faculty, staff, and other nonfaculty professional across both time periods. However, there were only limited changes in the predictors of support over time. Policy issues are discussed.

Impact of a Permitless Concealed Firearm Carry Law in West Virginia, 1999-2015 and 2016-2020.

We used firearm mortality and sales data to assess the impact of HB 4145, a May 2016 law that legalized concealed firearm carry without a permit in West Virginia. Firearm mortality was significantly higher (29%) in the years after the enactment of the law; handgun mortality was also higher (48% increase), whereas long gun deaths and firearm sales were unaffected. This may suggest that HB 4145 increased rates of firearm-related mortality in West Virginia without affecting firearm sales in the state. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(11):1163-1166. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307382).

Implicit Resentment and the Gun Policy Preferences of White Americans

Although several studies have examined race differences in gun‐related attitudes, researchers are only beginning to explore how racial attitudes might contribute to the gun policy preferences of white Americans. While many white Americans tend to oppose firearm restrictions, it is unclear whether racialized policy preferences tend to support these leanings. Our analysis of national data from Wave 4 of the Baylor Religion Survey (n = 1,063) indicates that white Americans who report more implicit resentment are more likely to support policies that would increase the number of armed people in schools and allow more people to carry concealed firearms and less likely to support policies that would limit the possession of handguns, semiautomatic weapons, and high‐capacity magazines. Interestingly, white Americans who report more implicit resentment are also less likely to support policies that would expand gun safety programs and background checks that include mental health screenings. These associations persisted with adjustments for age, gender, race or ethnicity, education, household income, marital status, the presence of children, religious identity, religiosity, political orientation, region of residence, and urban residence. We conclude that implicit resentment is consistently associated with less restrictive and more precarious gun policy preferences among white Americans. These patterns are noteworthy because they support the same general conclusion: white Americans who report more implicit resentment tend to want more guns in society with fewer legal restrictions related to access and safety.

Proceedings from the Second Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention, 2022: Creating a Sustainable Healthcare Coalition to Advance a Multidisciplinary Public Health Approach.

Proceedings from the Second Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention, 2022: Creating a Sustainable Healthcare Coalition to Advance a Multidisciplinary Public Health Approach.

Articulations of power: Guns on campus and the protests against them

When carrying concealed handguns on campus was legalised at The University of Texas (UT) at Austin in 2015, students and faculty positioned themselves in relation to the new law in very different ways, ranging from large demonstrations and the use of various types of rhetoric to non-vocal representations and deliberate silence. This essay examines an important transitional moment in the educational environment by focusing on the respective relationships and modes of expression—or articulations—of the affected parties regarding the issue of firearms on university premises, as these reflected opposing camps within the academic community. Drawing on interviews and quantitative research, and proposing a novel theoretical frame to understand the complex subject of guns, this essay examines the polemics, polarisation, and power dynamics around Campus Carry at UT Austin.

Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2023

Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2023

Marginal Structural Models to Estimate Causal Effects of Right-to-Carry Laws on Crime

Right-to-carry (RTC) laws allow the legal carrying of concealed firearms for defense, in certain states in the USA. I used modern causal inference methodology from epidemiology to examine the effect of RTC laws on crime over a period from 1959 up to 2016. I fitted marginal structural models (MSMs), using inverse probability weighting (IPW) to correct for criminological, economic, political and demographic confounders. Results indicate that RTC laws significantly increase violent crime by 7.5% and property crime by 6.1%. RTC laws significantly increase murder and manslaughter, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny theft and motor vehicle theft rates. Applying this method to this topic for the first time addresses methodological shortcomings in previous studies such as conditioning away the effect, overfit and the inappropriate use of county level measurements. Data and analysis code for this article are available online.

Vapor Signatures of Double-Base Smokeless Powders and Gunshot Residues for Supporting Canine Odor Imprinting.

Non-intrusive means to detect concealed firearms based on magnetometry are widely accepted and employed worldwide. Explosive detection canines can also detect concealed firearms provided that they are imprinted on materials that may be related to firearms such as nitroglycerin in double-base smokeless powders. However, there are hundreds of possible smokeless powder formulations across various manufacturers, presenting a challenge for trained canines to generalize across all possible powder compositions. In response, this paper reports a set of potential imprinting vapor(s) that may help detection canines generalize across a variety of double-base smokeless powders and gunshot residues. Statistical analysis was conducted on the smokeless powder database maintained by the National Center for Forensic Science, and headspace measurements targeting nitroglycerin and diphenylamine were collected from several powders. In addition, measurements were taken to track nitroglycerin and diphenylamine vapor concentration changes over time on the spent casings and gun barrels of four types of ammunition. The observed vapor concentration mixing ratios for nitroglycerin and diphenylamine from residues were in the part-per-billion to part-per-trillion range, which would be challenging to detect for many field-deployed explosive vapor detectors and indicate continued importance of canines for forensic investigation and crime prevention. Analyses suggest four potential vapor compositions for imprinting. For unburnt powders, 90% nitroglycerin and 10% diphenylamine appear adequate for most powders, and 90% dinitrotoluene and 10% diphenylamine is a possible candidate to increase generalization to powders that contain dinitrotoluene instead of nitroglycerin. 100% nitroglycerin appears adequate for many gunshot residues (GSRs). Diphenylamine may be present in some GSRs, and equal compositions of nitroglycerin and diphenylamine may be adequate for imprinting against these residues as they age (this study tracked signatures up to 7 weeks after discharge).

Officer-Involved Shootings and Concealed Carry Weapons Permitting Laws: Analysis of Gun Violence Archive Data, 2014-2020.

About 1,000 civilians are killed every year by a law enforcement officer in the USA, more than 90% by firearms. Most civilians who areshot are armed with afirearms. Higher rates of officer-involved shootings (OIS) are positively associated with state-level firearm ownership. Laws relaxing restrictions on civilians carrying concealed firearms (CCW) have been associated with increased violent crime. This study examines associations between CCW laws and OIS. We accessed counts of fatal and nonfatal OIS from the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) from 2014-2020 and calculated rates using population estimates. We conducted legal research to identify passage years of CCW laws. We used an augmented synthetic control models with fixed effects to estimate the effect of Permitless CCW law adoption on OIS over fourteen biannual semesters. We calculated an inverse variance weighted average of the overall effect. On average, Permitless CCW adopting states saw a 12.9% increase in the OIS victimization rate or an additional 4 OIS victimizations per year, compared to what would have happened had law adoption not occurred. Lax laws regulating civilian carrying of concealed firearms were associated with higher incidence of OIS. The increase in concealed gun carrying frequency associated with these laws may influence the perceived threat of danger faced by law enforcement. This could contribute to higher rates of OIS.

Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2022

Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2022

Securing Gun Rights by Statute: The Right to Keep and Bear Arms Outside the Constitution

In popular and professional discourse, debate about the right to keep and bear arms most often revolves around the Second Amendment. But that narrow reference ignores a vast and expansive nonconstitutional legal regime privileging guns and their owners. This collection of nonconstitutional gun rights confers broad powers and immunities on gun owners that go far beyond those required by the Constitution, like rights to bring guns on private property against an owner’s wishes and to carry a concealed firearm in public with no training or background check. This Article catalogues this set of expansive laws and critically assesses them. Unlike the formal constitutional guarantee, this broad collection is not solely libertarian, concerned only with guaranteeing noninterference with a negative right. Instead, it is also aggressively interventionist, countermanding contrary policy judgments by employers, universities, property owners, and local government officials, conferring robust rights and privileges, and shifting the distribution of violence in society. This Article underscores the rhetorical and legal connection between this gun-rights expansionism and the formal Second Amendment guarantee. These laws do not derive from a judicial interpretation of the scope of the Constitution, but they are expressed and advocated for in constitutional terms. The Article also highlights how broad gun rights can create unique harm to the body politic and to marginalized groups by fostering fear and mistrust and empowering sometimes-problematic private actors to proactively police their own communities. Finally, the Article shows how gun-rights expansionism influences constitutional doctrine in the context of the Second Amendment, as well as of the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments.

3.3 ONE EXAMPLE STATE: THE IMPACT OF MISSOURI’S FIREARM LAW CHANGES ON RATES OF YOUTH SUICIDE BY FIREARMS

Attendees will be able to: 1) describe a timeline of Missouri’s firearm laws; 2) discuss the impact of Missouri’s firearm law changes on adolescent and young adult suicide rates; and 3) understand the synthetic control method that is used to assess the impact of policies on public health outcomes. The presenter will: 1) describe the timeline of Missouri’s firearm laws from 1999 to 2018; 2) review the literature on impacts of Missouri’s permit-to-purchase (PTP) law and concealed carry law change on suicide rates; and 3) discuss results of her cross-sectional study assessing the impact of Missouri’s firearm law changes on adolescent and young adult suicide rates. In 2007, Missouri repealed its permit to purchase law, which removed an additional background check for prohibited persons to obtain firearms. Missouri lowered the legal age to obtain a concealed carry permit from 23 to 21 years in 2011 and further lowered the age to 19 years old in 2014. In 2017, Missouri enacted a law allowing gun owners to carry concealed firearms in most public places without a permit. Repeal of Missouri’s permit to purchase law was associated with a 21.8% increase in firearm suicide rates in young adults in Missouri. Lowering the minimum age of concealed carry to 19 years in Missouri was associated with a 32% increase in firearm suicide rates and a 29.7% increase in nonfirearm suicide rates in adolescents aged 14-18 years and a 7.2% increase in firearm suicide rates in young adults aged 19-24 years. Increases in rates of suicide by firearms in adolescents and young adults were seen following the repeal of Missouri’s PTP law and the lowering of the minimum age for concealed carry in 2014. Changes in Missouri’s firearm policies are likely an important contributor to rates of suicide by firearm in young Missouri residents. Missouri is one important example of how sequential weakening of firearm laws can impact statewide adolescent and young adult suicide rates.

Hiding the unwanted: A University-level campus carry policy

Campus carry laws have allowed civilians to legally bring their concealed firearms onto college and university campuses in several states in the U.S. over the past decade. Previous studies have addressed the policy’s legal grounds, arguments for and against it, impacts on campus safety, and faculty and students’ attitudes toward it. This paper examines the less addressed topic of policy implementation, especially the role of universities in modifying the outcomes, including what kinds of rules the higher educational institutions themselves have designed and what these approaches mean. The article focuses on Texas, where public higher educational institutions were required to allow campus carry but also given some discretion in implementation. The article provides a qualitative content analysis of policy documents and expert interviews regarding the campus carry policy at The University of Texas at Austin. It argues that the university fully accomplishes the law, but through its policy it has also sought to hide it, removing the issue from everyday life on campus.

The Right to Carry Has Not Increased Crime: Improving an Old Debate Through Better Data on Permit Growth Over Time

Over the last 30 years, a majority of US states adopted Right-to-Carry (RTC) laws at the same time that crime rates dramatically decreased. A large literature has examined whether RTC laws contributed to or slowed this decline in crime, with most studies concluding that they have no significant effect on crime. However, this research has been plagued by methodological challenges, many of which are exacerbated by the common approach of modeling the effect of RTC laws using a binary dummy variable to indicate a one-time change in policy. Recently, Donohue, Aneja and Weber (2019a) have employed a novel synthetic control approach which they suggest indicates that RTC laws significantly increase violent crime. However, we show that this analysis is highly sensitive to modeling choices, and Donohue et al. chose a specification that has been criticized by Kaul et al. (2017) as mistaken because it prevents covariates from exercising any influence on the development of predicted crime rates. Correcting this to properly incorporate covariates dramatically changes the estimated effect in many states; and comprehensive synthetic control analysis reveals no significant effect on crime. Given the methodological challenges inherent in binary approaches to modeling the effects of RTC laws, we gather data on the growth of carry permits in states over time, which allows us to investigate the phenomenon of interest - the actual ability to carry - in a manner that is theoretically more valid and econometrically more powerful. Employing two different methods for estimating missing data - modeling the growth of permits as a logistical growth process and imputing missing data using the Amelia II package - we find that the growth in carry permits has no effect on violent crime rates, homicide rates, firearm homicide rates, or non-firearm homicide rates. This study provides further, strong evidence that the dramatic growth in the ability to carry firearms for self-defense in recent decades has not exacerbated crime rates.