TN: Concealed Carry Permits Up 23% in 2009

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http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/feb/21/tennessee-gun-permits-23-last-year/

Knoxville has the highest concentration of permit-holders among the state's largest cities: More than 11 percent of its residents 21 and up are licensed to carry firearms.

NASHVILLE — The number of Tennesseans licensed by the state to go armed increased by nearly 51,000 people last year — to 268,711, according to new state statistics.

That's an increase of 23 percent over the 218,004 Tennesseans with handgun-carry permits on Jan. 1, 2009. By comparison, the 2008 increase was 14 percent, according to Tennessee Department of Safety figures.

In Shelby County, the number of residents with handgun-carry permits jumped by 5,205 in 2009 to 38,130, up 16 percent. The Shelby County increase in 2008 was 15 percent.

The new data indicate that about 6 percent of Tennessee residents old enough to have a handgun-carry permit -- those ages 21 and up -- had one at the start of this year

SNIP (Lot of interesting stuff in the snip)

Violent crime in Memphis declined 9 percent from 2008 to 2009 and by about 15 percent since 2006, he said.

Tennessee Handgun-carry permits

— Number of permits in Tennessee on Jan. 1, 2010: 268,711, up from 218,004 on Jan. 1, 2009, and 191,208 on Jan. 1, 2008

— Total number of permits issued by Tennessee in 2009: 111,469. Of those, 59,413 were new original permits, 51,467 were renewals, and 589 were to new residents with permits from other states allowed under state law to renew in Tennessee.

— Statewide, total issuance of permits (including renewals) nearly doubled from 57,172 in 2008 to 111,469 last year, a 95 percent increase.
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Now just wait a gosh-durned minute. We have been assured by certain people here that "more guns = more crime" and that with more people packing guns that there would be shootouts over parking spaces, and blood running in the streets and all of that sort of stuff. Instead, the number of permits issued has almost doubled, and violent crime dropped - again.

In Knoxville, 11% of the adults are licensed to carry concealed. That is 1 in 9. That would put a lot of pressure on a mugger to make sure that his victime selection methodology is up to date. Or maybe find a different line of crime, maybe even work.