Results of a study commissioned by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), released on Dec. 22, 2024, found, “Overall, 24% of general election voters say they carry concealed handguns, with 13% who carry all or most of the time.” Demographic results for those who carry defy the well-worn gun-owner stereotype. In descending order they were: Black (31.8); Hispanic (31.2); non-Hispanic (23.4); White (22.2); Asian (20.4); and Other (19.3).
Among those those who carry most or all the time, Black voters led the list at 19.1 percent. Hispanics came in second with 17.7 percent and non-Hispanic minorities 12.5 percent. White respondents to the survey trailed at 12.3 followed by Other with 3 percent.
The study found 26.5 percent of Black men who vote always carry or do so most of the time. The Hispanic rate was 23.5 percent and 14.2 among Whites.
Hispanic women were tops of those who carry most or always at 13.9 percent, followed by Blacks with a rate of 12.8. Among Whites the figure was 10.6 percent.
“People in the South are the most likely to carry, and followed closely by the west and then the Midwest,” CPRC stated. “Republicans and conservatives are the most likely to carry, though even significant numbers of liberals carry. Urban and rural general election voters carry at the highest rates.”
The study, which included responses from 1,000 general election voters nationwide, noted another trend. “Not surprisingly, people in constitutional-carry states carry concealed handguns more frequently than people in right-to-carry states. While there is no difference in the rate that people carry all or most of the time in right-to-carry versus the seven states that were may-issue before Bruen, there is a large difference in the total number of general election voters who carry at least once in a while.”