At the behest of the gun lobby, however, many states have in recent years substantially weakened standards for qualifying for these permits-and 21 states have now eliminated these protections entirely. In the late 20th century, some states began to grant law enforcement discretion to issue permits (often called “CCW” or carrying a concealed weapon permits) to people who passed a background check and received firearm safety training and/or demonstrated a particular need to carry hidden, loaded guns in public. These restrictions were among the earliest gun laws adopted in the United States. Historically, almost every state prohibited or strictly limited the carrying of concealed, loaded weapons in public places. Weber, “Right‐to‐Carry Laws and Violent Crime: A Comprehensive Assessment Using Panel Data and a State‐Level Synthetic Control Analysis,” Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 16, no.
