Criminals weigh the cost of the crime against the benefits. You don't have to be a criminal mastermind to know that the possibility of a concealed weapon tilts the odds in the victim's favor. Research shows that robbery and rape victims who resist with a gun are only half as likely to be injured as those who don't. A recent study by John Lott and David Mustard of the University of Chicago published in the Journal of Legal Studies bears this out. Vermont has long had the least restrictive firearms-carry laws.
Citizens there can carry guns either openly or concealed without any permit.
Perhaps in part because of its liberal gun policies, Vermont has among the lowest violent crime numbers in the country. Yet FBI data show that killings stemming from arguments are falling as a share of all homicides. Of 21,000 carry permit holders, there was no reported incident of a permit holder injuring an innocent person. So much for all the shouts of outrage about the perils of legal gun ownership. These near century-old rabbit rifles that poor, bumbling John Howard was so frantic to remove from people who have safely owned them for generations are not concealable, and in fact not even comparable.