Gun law appeals to an older crowd
By KEVIN MURPHY The Kansas City Star
Still trim and agile at 70, R.N. Gray decided to apply for a Missouri concealed-weapons permit in case he needed a gun to fend off criminals.
I don't pretend to be the man I was 30 or 40 years ago as far as my endurance, ability to run, strength and so forth, said Gray, of Columbia.
At his age, Gray has plenty of company in seeking a gun permit under a state law that took effect three months ago.
Permit application records show that the concealed-carry law is most popular with people in their 50s, 60s and older, a trend in other states as well.
We had one man who was 100 years old, said Lloyd Cook, owner of Crossfire Recreation Center in Independence, which gives permit training courses. He had been held up and robbed. He was afraid to go down the street by himself.
The man passed the required target practice, Cook said. In fact, age has little bearing on how well people shoot, and nearly all of the older permit applicants are familiar with guns, said Cook and others who oversee training.
Gray, a retired city manager of Columbia and four other small cities, said the age trend for permit carriers should be reassuring to people concerned that the new law would put guns in the hands of greenhorns.
I hope they can understand that people getting permits who are older folks are responsible, law-abiding citizens, Gray said. You're getting the permit to protect you and your family.
About 6,300 people have applied to local sheriffs in Missouri for concealed-weapons permits, according to the Missouri Highway Patrol, which conducts background checks. About a fourth of the 114 counties, including Jackson, Clay and Platte, still are not taking permit applications because of unresolved cost issues.
People over 80 are relatively rare among permit applicants, but sheriffs, Cook and others who oversee gun permit training said they have noticed that most students seem to be well into middle age or beyond.
They are older by a factor of about 10 to one, said Tim Oliver of Columbia, who has trained more than 500 permit applicants. There have been very few people in their 20s.
Studies show that permit applicants in other states with concealed-weapons laws also tend to be middle-aged or older, said Daniel Webster, co-director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins University.
Missouri and most counties don't tally the average age of permit applicants, but some reviewed age information on their own or at the request of The Kansas City Star.
The most complete information comes from Greene County, which includes Springfield. Among the 442 applicants as of mid-May, 55 percent were 50 or older, according to data compiled by the Regional Justice Information Service in St. Louis. Men made up 89 percent of permit applicants.
The population of Greene County as a whole is younger than the gun permit applicants. Only 41 percent of the county's residents age 22 and older are over 50, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
There were 107 applicants 60 and over, compared with 86 in their 20s or 30s. The largest group was in their 50s, with 135 applicants, followed by the 40s, with 114.
As of early May, 124 applicants in Franklin County west of St. Louis were 50 or older, with 104 under age 50. Only five persons in their 20s applied, but there were 10 applicants in their 70s. Permit applicants must be at least 23 years old.
In Bates County south of Kansas City, seven of the first 24 applicants for permits were 50 or younger. Two were in their 20s, five were over 60. In Pettis County east of Kansas City, about one-fourth of the permit applicants were over age 60, the sheriff's office reported.
Greene County Sheriff Jack Merritt speculated that older people want to carry guns because they feel they are easy targets for crimes.
While the elderly are sometimes eyed for certain crimes, they are rarely victims of violent offenses, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. In 2002, people age 65 and older were by far the least likely age group to be victims of violent crimes.
But the elderly realize they also are more likely than younger people to get injured if attacked, said John Stein, deputy director of the National Organization for Victim Assistance. They may not only lose their wallet, but could, for example, break a hip if pushed to the ground, he said. They are probably overstating the risk in their own mind in terms of being a target of a criminal, but not overstating the dangers that a crime would bring to them, Stein said.
Gray said older people have lived a long time and are wise to the world, for good or bad. Another factor in older people getting permits is that they are comfortable and familiar with guns, Cook said.
Indeed, people ages 50 to 64 and 65 and older are the most likely age groups to own a gun, according to a 2002 study by University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. Nearly 30 percent of each of those two age groups owned guns, compared with about 20 percent of people in their 30s.
Tom Smith, who oversaw the study, said a decline in hunting is the major reason older people are more likely than younger people to have guns.
The older generation is maintaining its high level of ownership, and the younger generation is not making up for that, Smith said.
But handguns, not normally used in hunting, were slightly more likely to be owned by people in their 30s 21.6 percent of study respondents in that age group compared with people 65 or older 19.9 percent of respondents in that age group, according to the Smith study.
The concealed-weapons law has the potential for motivating more elderly men to get a weapon, which concerns Martha Storandt, professor of clinical psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, who teaches geriatric psychology. Elderly white men have the highest incidence of suicide, she said.
A spokesman for a national gun rights group, however, said the suicide concern is unfounded because permit holders likely already have guns.
It's a false issue that people against concealed carry throw out there to in effect muddy the waters, said Dave Workman, spokesman for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Another concern could be the ability of older people to use a gun effectively, said Webster, the Johns Hopkins researcher.
As one gets older, one becomes more vulnerable to different kinds of injuries in accidental situations, Webster said. Mental acuity sometimes starts to diminish, physical abilities in terms of dexterity and handling things may be diminished.
But Webster said research shows that many permit holders already owned and carried guns before they were legal, and he doubts there will be much, if any, increase in gun-related mishaps in Missouri.
Be suspicious of claims of very dramatic impacts either way on this issue, Webster said. Generally, this is a low-risk group who had already possessed firearms prior to the change in law.
To reach Kevin Murphy, call
(816) 234-4464 or send e-mail to
kmurphy@kcstar.com.
