Guess What Happened to Violent Crime Rates After Ohio Adopted Permitless Carry?

Last June, Ohio became the 23rd state in the nation to adopt a “permitless carry” law, allowing legal gun owners to both keep and bear arms without having to first obtain a government permission slip.

At the time, gun control activists and anti-gun politicians decried the move and declared it would make the state a more dangerous place. State Rep. Allison Russo even claimed that “Republicans have made it crystal clear that they value the approval of the gun lobby more than the lives of Ohioans and the police officers who protect our communities every day.”

With the FBI’s crime statistics for 2022 now publicly available, was Russo right? Did Ohio become a more dangerous place because of permitless carry? Were Republicans really casting their votes because they had no care or concern about the safety of their constituents or those tasked with enforcing the laws they approved at the state capitol?

Nope to all of the above.

Overall violent crimes were down in Ohio and the U.S. in 2022, with Ohio seeing a 7.5% decrease from 2021 and the U.S. reporting a 1.63% decrease.

Last year Ohio and the U.S. both also saw a drop in homicides after increases in 2021 and 2020.

Ohio had 6.1 homicides per 100,000 people last year, compared to 7.5 and 7 in 2021 and 2020, respectively, according data from the FBI. Nationally there were 6.5 homicide per 100,000 in 2020 and 6.8 in 2021 compared to 6.3 in 2022.