Back in November, I started an online survey to collect data on how people incorporate concealed carry into their lifestyles. In case you haven’t taken it, there’s still time! It’s completely anonymous and shouldn’t take more than five or ten minutes. In the six months the survey has been running, I’ve received 67 responses. This isn’t a large enough sample to generate data that’s statistically meaningful enough to guide national public policy, but that wasn’t my intent. I just wanted to learn about how average people carry and share that information with the public; in that respect, the survey has been a success so far.
Now that I’ve received enough responses to feel comfortable discussing them, I’ll be showing off the results and providing my analysis in a series of blog posts. With how successful my concealed carry survey has been, I realized while tabulating the results that I had so much to talk about that I had to split it into three separate posts!
Age
The overwhelming majority of respondents are what I’d call middle-aged, from 45 to 64 years old. Fewer than one in six respondents are under the age of 45. This is far from an accurate cross-section of the U.S. population—I think it’s more of a cross-section of people who listen to listen to Gun Owners Radio and/or are active on Facebook, where the survey has been publicized.
As you read the rest of the results, keep this age distribution in mind, as it’s sure to influence the data. That said, there were some results I found interesting in light of the fact that most respondents are middle-aged or older. I’ll talk about those when I get to the “Equipment Questions” section in an upcoming post.
Time Carrying
Now here’s an interesting split.
I tried to keep the survey questions fairly straightforward so as not to scare people off. Now I’m kicking myself a little for that, as I wish I could get more granular data in response to this question. Based on the chart here, I strongly suspect we’d see a positively skewed normal distribution (bell curve) with a median around six or seven years. Notably, these results suggest that most respondents did not receive their permits in their early twenties.
I think this chart also speaks to the success that San Diego County Gun Owners and its sister organizations have had in helping denizens of SoCal get their concealed carry permits. Consider these facts: 1. This survey was really only publicized within SDCGO’s sphere of influence online; 2. SDCGO has been around for eleven years now, and one of its main projects has been to help people get their permits; 3. Some 65.7 percent of respondents started carrying after SDCGO was founded.
Frequency
This one doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Of those who carry, fewer than one in six do so less than a few times per week. It’s good to have some empirical confirmation here, but I think the results are obvious: Why bother to acquire a permit if you won’t use it?
Practice
As many instructors are rightfully fond of saying, shooting is a perishable skill, and they don’t repeat that nugget of wisdom just to get people to pay for their services, either. If you’ve ever hit the range after being a few months out of practice, you’ve surely been disgusted with your own performance. One of the other managers at the gun store where I used to work would say that your carry gun should be the one you shoot the most.
Professional opinions vary, but the general consensus seems to be that you need to get the reps in at the very least once a month just to prevent your skills from deteriorating. If you want to improve, you should probably be putting at least a box of ammo through your carry gun every week or two.
That being the case, I’m pleased to report that more than three-quarters of respondents shoot their carry guns at least often enough to keep their skills sharp, and more than two in five are shooting enough to improve. These results should be reassuring to anyone. When anti-gun organizations attack concealed carry, their messaging campaigns try to portray us sane, trained, law-abiding concealed carriers as a lawless rabble lacking the supposed unassailable professional expertise of law enforcement officers. I’m by no means anti-cop, but it’s a simple fact that most patrol officers who carry a handgun every day for work and are empowered to use it aren’t required to qualify more often than twice a year or so.
To that point, several respondents brought up training in their typed responses to the open-ended question at the end of the survey’s final section: “How has carrying a concealed handgun affected your thought processes and lifestyle?” Some respondents specifically reported studying de-escalation techniques, and many others mentioned taking up a mindset focused on avoiding confrontations. Some mentioned doing dry-fire practice daily or nearly daily in addition to their live-fire training. I challenge anyone who thinks only police should be allowed to carry in public to show me data on how often LEOs actually train.
