A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that burglaries are more likely to occur in neighborhoods with fewer gun permits among residents. Kay Smythe originally reported on the non-partisan study at The Daily Caller.
Published earlier this month, the study took data from an open-access database containing information on Tennessee handgun carry permit holders and cross-referenced their zip codes with rates of burglaries. The researchers found a significant decrease in burglaries in zip codes with high rates of gun permits.
The study found that zip codes with the highest concentration of permits experienced 1.7 fewer burglaries per week after the database on ownership was made available to the public. The neighborhoods with the lowest number of permits experienced an average of 1.5 more burglaries, according to the study.
The change in crime rates came as a result of the publication of the gun permit-holder database, the researchers noted. As the study focused on Tennessee, the results cannot necessarily be generalized to the rest of the United States, and the researchers also noted that there would be some privacy concerns if the mass publication of gun permit holders and their personal information were released.
