There’s a saying that goes, “An armed society is a polite society,” and there’s a definite logic to that. After all, if you don’t know who is armed and you suspect that anyone and everyone actually could be (maybe even probably is) armed, wouldn’t you keep your obnoxious replies to yourself? Wouldn’t you restrain yourself from yelling at other people instead of trying to calmly and peacefully workout any disagreements and problems?
Of course you would, and that is actually the way things work.
For example, there is a story that self-protection trainer Tim Larkin tells about a guy who was a strength training coach for police departments. When that coach would go to a new city to train the police, he would ask where the gym is that all of the convicts go to. Why? Because that is where he wanted to train.
Now, many people would think that is crazy because they would assume that the gym with all of the convicts would be full of rude people and all kinds of problems. On the contrary, though, this coach wanted to train at those gyms because everyone there was more polite than the gyms in the “safe” areas of town. See, at the gym where the convicts are, they all know that literally everyone around them is dangerous, so, they’re polite to everyone. They aren’t looking for a fight. They just want to work out.
On the flip side, the gyms in the “safe” part of town are the gyms where people felt safe being rude and disrespectful to people because the feel secure that no one is going to punch them or kill them for having a smart mouth. And so, many more people are rude in those gyms.
And it’s the same way in the whole of society. When people realize how dangerous the world really is, they learn to restrain themselves and treat everyone with courtesy. It’s pretty basic human nature and human relations if you think about it.
So, if an armed society is a polite society, I am reasoning that states with a higher percentage of the adult population that have concealed carry permits will tend to be safer. And our friends over at John Lott’s Crime Prevention Research Center are let us know which states have the highest percentage of the population that are legal concealed carry permit holders. The states with the highest percentage of the population that are concealed carry permit holders are Alabama, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Colorado, all with over 15% of the adult populations in those states having concealed carry Permits. (It should be a higher percentage, in my opinion.)
The states with 10-15% of the adult populations having concealed carry Permits are Washington (state, not D.C.), Utah, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
It’s no surprise that most of the states in the southeast U.S. have over 10% of the adults with concealed carry permits.
Presumably, the states listed above are the most polite states.
And the states that are the most rude (based on having the lowest percentage of the adult population with concealed carry permits) are, not surprisingly, mostly states that have serious crime problems. Those states with under 2% of the adult populations who have a concealed carry permit are California, New York, New Jersey, and Maine.
No real surprises there.
And based on this data, if you live in one of the four states with the lowest permit percentage, I’d recommend moving to states with the highest permit percentage as soon as possible.
Because life is too short to have to keep dealing with rude people.
