Citation

Hemenway DA, Hicks JG. J. Public Health Policy 2015; 36(3): 324-334.

Affiliation

Natick Police Department, 20 East Central Street, Natick, MA, 01769-4631, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group -- Palgrave-Macmillan)

DOI

10.1057/jphp.2015.11

PMID

25880883

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.Journal of Public Health Policy advance online publication, 16 April 2015; doi:10.1057/jphp.2015.11.

Language: en