Firearm carrying and purchase intentions in US permitless carry states: state policy or state culture?

Authors

Paul E Teas, Tannuja D Rozario, Alexandra Filindra

Published in

Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention. Oct 01, 2026. Epub Oct 01, 2026.

Abstract

Over the past decade, 29 US states have adopted permitless carry laws, eliminating the requirement to obtain a permit before carrying a firearm in public. Prior research links these policy changes to increases in firearm violence, but less is known about how they relate to individual-level firearm behaviours and purchasing intentions.
Using a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of firearm-owning and non-owning US adults conducted in the USA in 2024-2025 (n=18 251), we examined associations between state permitless carry laws and firearm ownership, carrying behaviour, carry frequency, purchase intentions and firearm type. We estimated logistic and multinomial regression models, sequentially adding individual-level controls and state-level covariates including violent crime rate, poverty rate, racial composition, 2016 Republican vote share and state household firearm ownership.
In models without state-level covariates, residents of permitless carry states were more likely to report firearm ownership (OR=1.79; p<0.001), carrying outside the home (OR=1.44; p<0.05), handgun ownership or purchase intentions (OR=1.85; p<0.001) and intent to purchase a firearm (OR=1.53; p<0.001). However, these associations did not persist after accounting for state-level Republican vote share or gun-ownership rates.
Differences between permitless and non-permitless states in self-reported firearm ownership, carrying, and purchase intentions dissipated after accounting for broader state-level political and firearm contexts, suggesting that these differences may reflect state political culture and gun ownership more than permit policy alone.

PMID:
42823337
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 02 Oct 2026.

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