Right-to-carry gun laws linked to increase in violent crime, Stanford research shows

Stanford research reaffirms that right-to-carry gun laws are connected with an increase in violent crime. This debunks - with the latest empirical evidence - earlier claims that more guns actually lead to less crime. New Stanford research confirms that right-to-carry gun laws are linked to an increase in violent crime. Right-to-carry or concealed-carry laws have generated much debate in the past two decades - do they make society safer or more dangerous? While there is no federal law on concealed-carry permits, all 50 states have passed laws allowing citizens to carry certain concealed firearms in public, either without a permit or after obtaining a permit from local government or law enforcement. Recently published scholarship updates the empirical evidence on this issue. Stanford law Professor John J. Donohue III , Stanford law student Abhay Aneja and doctoral student Alexandria Zhang from Johns Hopkins University were the co-authors of the study. "Trying to estimate the impact of right-to-carry laws has been a vexing task over the last two decades," said Donohue, the C. Wendell and Edith M. Carlsmith Professor of Law, in an interview.