White people in crime-ridden counties apparently account for the overwhelming majority of concealed-carry permits—up to 90%. An interesting bit of data sheds light on a data correlation between high crime-rate, high black populations, and a dearth of legal guns:

If you live in [the] 60624 [ZIP code of Chicago], you don’t expect your streets to be safe. In the last 30 days, that neighborhood has recorded more homicides, robberies, assaults, thefts and narcotics charges combined than any other ZIP code in Cook County when measured on a per capita basis. Its population is 98 percent black and averages a median income just above the poverty line.

It also is one of the ZIP codes that registers the fewest active concealed carry firearms permits per capita in the county, according to concealed carry numbers obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by The Washington Times.

. . .

It’s a completely different story in affluent Palos Park, located in southwestern Cook County. The 60464 ZIP code boasts a negligible crime rate: Only one homicide has been committed in 10 years, according to the most recent state police data. Ninety-six percent of its residents are white, earning an average income of $121,000.

It is difficult to know how one should interpret this data. As I’ve said countless times before, correlation is not the same as causation. However you cut it, this data is not good for gun-control advocates as it indicates that issuing a higher number of concealed-carry permits would probably reduce crime. But another question is why there are so few concealed-carry permits being issued to black people.

Is it because most of the black people in these neighborhoods that want guns would be using them to commit crimes? Or is it because it is harder for black people who want to defend themselves to get concealed-carry permits? Or is this a different issue of race? Black neighborhoods are poorer, so crime tends to be higher anyway, and concealed-carry permits are so expensive that poor people can’t get them?

At the end of the day, legislators need to understand that discouraging gun ownership is doing little to actually reduce crime. Putting legal guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens is one of the easiest means to make a neighborhood safer. Added to the welfare/poverty correlation, the concealed-carry/crime rate correlation should really cause the people to wonder whether liberals want what is best for the black community.