Skip to main content
Log in

‘May issue’ gun carrying laws and police discretion: Some evidence from Massachusetts

Journal of Public Health Policy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In almost all states in the United States, to carry a concealed handgun legally requires a permit from the police. Many states have changed from may-issue laws (where the local police chief has discretion about to whom to issue a license) to shall-issue laws (where the police chief must issue a permit if the applicant passes a computerized federal background check). Studies conflict on the effect on crime. None considered the situation in may-issue states when police used discretion and refused to issue a permit. We provide suggestive evidence from a December 2013 survey of police chiefs in Massachusetts’ 351 cities and towns. Of the 121 responding police chiefs, a large majority favored retaining police discretion. Chiefs issued few discretionary denials – median 2 per year, citing providing false information, a history of assault (often domestic violence), a history of drug or alcohol abuse, or of mental-health issues as the most common reasons for denial.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes and References

  • U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2012) Gun control: States’ laws and requirements for concealed carry permits vary across the nation. GAO 12-7-17. July, http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/592552.pdf, accessed August 2014.

  • Law Center to Prevent Gun Policy. (2014) Concealed weapons permitting policy summary, http://smartgunlaws.org/concealed-weapons-permitting-policy-summary/, accessed August 2014.

  • Hemenway, D. and Vriniotis, M. (2008) Carrying concealed weapons (ccw) laws: From may issue to shall issue. Harvard Injury Control Research Center Bullet-ins. Fall, http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/files/2013/01/bullet-ins_ccw_reissue.pdf, accessed August 2014.

  • Ayres, I. and Donohue III, J.J. (2009) More guns less crime fails again: The latest evidence from 1977–2006. Econ Journal Watch 6 (2): 218–238.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guis, M. (2014) An examination of the effects of concealed weapons laws and assault weapons bans on state-level murder rates. Applied Economic Letters 21 (4): 265–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Research Council. (2008) Understanding Crime Trends: Workshop Report. Washington DC: The National Academies Press.

  • Hill, J. (1997) The impact of liberalized concealed weapon statutes on rates of violent crime. Durham, NC: Duke University undergraduate thesis.

  • Hood III, M.V. and Neeley, G.W. (2001) Packin’ in the hood: Examining assumptions of concealed-handgun carry research. Social Science Quarterly 81 (2): 523–537.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, C.D., Nwaiwu, O., Moudouni, D.K.M., Edwards, R. and Lin, S.-H. (2013) When concealed handgun licensees break bad: Criminal convictions of concealed handgun licenses in Texas, 2001–2009. American Journal of Public Health 103 (1): 86–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rempel, W.C. and Serrano, R.A. (2000) Felons get concealed gun licenses under Bush’s ‘tough’ gun law, L.A. Times, 3 October: A1, http://articles.latimes.com/2000/oct/03/news/mn-30319, accessed November 2014.

  • O’Matz, M. and Maines, J. (2007) In Florida, it’s easy to get a license to carry a gun, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 28 January, A1. http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2007-01-28/news/0701270316_1_gun-licensing-system, accessed November 2014.

  • Alesia, M., Gilles, H., Evans, T. and Nichols, M. (2009) Should these Hoosiers have been allowed to carry a gun in public?Indianapolis Star, 11 October, http://www.indystar.com/article/20091011/NEWS14/910110365/Should-these-Hoosiers-been-allowed-carry-gun-public, accessed November 2014.

  • Violence Policy Center. (2014) Concealed carry killers, http://www.vpc.org/ccwkillers.htm, accessed August 2014.

  • GunPolicy.org. (2014) Armed violence and Gun laws: Country by Country, http://gunpolicy.org, accessed August 2014.

  • Carroll, M. (2014) Gun licenses on the rise, as state considers changes in gun laws. Boston Globe 6 March.

  • Firearm Records Bureau v. Simkin 466 Mass (168) 2013.

  • Kelleher, K., Chaffin, M., Hollenberg, J. and Fischer, E. (1994) Alcohol and drug disorders among physically abusive and neglectful parents in a community based sample. American Journal of Public Health 84 (10): 1586–1590.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, A.S. (1998) Substance use/abuse as a predictor to illegal and violent behavior: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior 3 (4): 339–355.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker, R.N. and Auerhahn, K. (1998) Drugs, alcohol, and homicide: Issues in research and theory. In: M.D. Smith and M.A. Sahn (eds.) Homicide: A Sourcebook of Social Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharps, P.W., Campbell, J., Campbell, D., Gary, F. and Webster, D. (2001) The role of alcohol in intimate partner femicide. American Journal of Addictions 10 (2): 122–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walton-Moss, B.J., Manganello, J., Frye, V. and Campbell, J.C. (2005) Risk factors for intimate partner violence and associated injury among urban women. Journal of Community Health 30 (5): 377–389.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Afifi, T.O., Henriksen, C.A., Asmundson, G.J.G. and Sareen, J. (2012) Victimization and perpetration of intimate partner violence and substance use disorder in a nationally representative sample. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 200 (8): 684–691.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kellermann, A.L. et al (1992) Suicide in the home in relation to gun ownership. New England Journal of Medicine 327 (7): 467–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kellermann, A.L. et al (1993) Gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home. New England Journal of Medicine 329 (15): 1084–1091.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rivara, F.P., Mueller, B.A., Somes, G., Mendoza, C.T., Rushforth, N.B. and Kellermann, A.L. (1997) Alcohol and illicit drug abuse and the risk of violent death in the home. Journal of American Medical Association 278 (7): 569–575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conner, K.R., Cox, C., Duberstein, P.R., Tian, L., Nisbet, P.A. and Conwell, Y. (2001) Violence, alcohol and completed suicide: A case-control study. American Journal of Psychiatry 158 (10): 1701–1705.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wintemute, G.J., Drake, C.M., Beaumont, J.J., Wright, M.A. and Parham, C.A. (1998) Prior misdemeanor convictions as a risk factor for later violent and firearm-related criminal activity among authorized purchasers of handguns. JAMA 280 (24): 2083–2087.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wright, M.A. and Wintemute, G.J. (2010) Felonious or violent criminal activity that prohibits gun ownership among prior purchasers of handguns: Incidence and risk factors. Journal of Trauma 69 (4): 948–955.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang, M., Wong, S.C. and Coid, J. (2010) The efficacy of violence prediction: A meta-analytic comparison of nine risk assessment tools. Psychological Bulletin 136 (5): 740–767.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skeem, J.L. and Monahan, J. (2011) Current directions in violence risk assessment. Current Directions in Psychological Science 20 (1): 38–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wintemute, G.J., Wright, M.A., Drake, C.M. and Beaumont, J.J. (2001) Subsequent criminal activity among violent misdemeanants who seek to purchase handguns: Risk factors and effectiveness of denying handgun purchase. Journal of American Medical Association 285 (8): 1019–1026.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swanson, J.W. et al (2013) Preventing gun violence involving people with serious mental illness. In: D.W. Webster and J.S. Vernick (eds.) Reducing Gun Violence in America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacQuarrie, B. (2013) Want a gun license in Massachusetts? Much depends on where you live: No fixed standard for granting gun permits in Bay State. Boston Globe 10 March, http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2013/03/10/want-gun-license-massachusetts-much-depends-where-you-live/04SFWtTEpGdtEHm5mTQuSO/story.html, accessed August 2014.

  • Committee to Reduce Firearm Violence. (2014) Strategies for reducing gun violence in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Report to Speaker of the House of Representatives Robert DeLeo. February, http://www.northeastern.edu/cssh/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Strategies-for-Reducing-Gun-Violence-in-the-Commonwealth-of-Massachusetts.pdf, accessed August 2014.

  • Hemenway, D. (2006) Private Guns Public Health. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

How do police chiefs use their discretion to issue permits to carry concealed firearms?

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hemenway, D., Hicks, J. ‘May issue’ gun carrying laws and police discretion: Some evidence from Massachusetts. J Public Health Pol 36, 324–334 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2015.11

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2015.11

Keywords

Navigation