From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: States’ Issuance of Permits to Carry Concealed Handguns

Description: Audio interview by GAO staff with Carol Cha, Director,
Homeland Security and Justice

Related GAO Work: GAO-12-717: Gun Control: States’ Laws and Requirements
for Concealed Carry Permits Vary across the Nation

Released: August 2012

[ Background Music ]

[ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report; your source for news and
information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It's August
2012. As of 2011, there are at least eight million active permits to
carry concealed handguns in the United States. These permits are issued
by state and local authorities whose eligibility requirements can vary
dramatically. A group led by Carol Cha, a director in GAO's Homeland
Security and Justice Team, recently reviewed these requirements and how
they are managed. GAO's Jeremy Cluchey sat down with Carol to talk about
what they found.

[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] Can you talk about the different sorts of
eligibility requirements that different states use in issuing concealed
carrying permits?

[ Carol Cha: ] Sure. So, concealed carry laws allow handgun owners under
certain conditions to carry a loaded handgun either concealed on a
person, in a vehicle, or in public. States can allow civilians to carry
these concealed handguns either with or without a permit. Now states use
various sorts of eligibility requirements and they can be classified
into a number of categories based on their concealed carry laws. And the
majority of states fall into one of two, may issue or shall issue. Now
may issue states apply discretion in granting concealed carry permits.
So for example, California and Maryland will require applicants to
demonstrate, among other things, a good and substantial reason for
needing a permit. And it's up to the issuing authorities in those states
to make the determination as to what constitutes a good and substantial
reason. Shall issue states, on the other hand, require that a permit be
issued to an applicant if no statutory reason for denial exists. The
remaining states either prohibit concealed carry all together, and at
this time that's Illinois and DC, or they do not require permits in
order to carry a concealed handguns and that applies to four states at
this time.

[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] Given this wide variation among requirements across
states, is any particular set of eligibility requirements the norm or
the standard?

[ Carol Cha: ] Well the majority of states share some common eligibility
requirements such as firearms safety training and being 21 years old.
Overall states' requirements do broadly differ and they differ across
states as well as within states. And we conducted case studies of nine
states that issue permits in order to illustrate these differences. So
for example, all states disqualify applicants who have been convicted of
a felony but the nine states differ in what types of crimes constitute a
felony. So as an example, you know certain property theft in Virginia
may result in a felony conviction whereas in Tennessee it may only be a
misdemeanor. Certain states also have unique disqualifying factors. For
example, in Texas and Tennessee they disqualify applicants who are
delinquent on child support whereas in the other seven case study states
they did not identify that as a factor that they use. So given the wide
variability in requirements, permit applicants could be eligible to
receive a permit in some states but not in others.

[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] One aspect of this issue that your team looked at
here is how these laws have changed across states over time. What sorts
of trends did you identify when you looked at this?

[ Carol Cha: ] So in June 2002, seven states and DC prohibited the
concealed carry of handguns. As of March 2012, this number has dropped
to one state and DC. During the same time period the number of shall
issue states also increased from 29 to 39 and the number of may issue
states dropped from 13 to 10. In addition, the number of states that do
not require a permit to conceal carry increased from one to four.

[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] Guns are a perennial topic of national discussion,
particularly in the wake of tragic and high profile shootings. For
taxpayers who are interested in how states and localities are managing
these different laws and requirements, what's the bottom line here?

[ Carol Cha: ] Well over the years Congress has considered the issue of
concealed carry permitting and the concept of national reciprocity and
in fact there is proposed legislation currently pending in Congress and
both gun rights and gun control advocates have weighed in on these
matters. So to inform this national dialogue our report lays out the
status of concealed carry permitting across the nation. And the key take
away here, I think, is that the number of states allowing permits is
increasing and that states' laws and requirements associated with
concealed carry also broadly differ.

[ Background Music ]

[ Narrator: ] To learn more, visit GAO.gov and be sure to tune in to the
next episode of GAO's Watchdog Report for more from the congressional
Watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office.