ArmedWomen

women should be allowed to open carry in SF

— B.T. Stephens, Esq. (@LusciousPear) April 27, 2016

This tweet got me thinking. What would the world be like if only women were allowed to carry guns in our society. Let's assume this only applies to civilians and the police and military would continue to function as normal. Let's also assume that the regular caveats for who can own a gun would still apply - for example, woment with severe mental health problems wouldn't be allowed to have guns.

First of all, how many women are actually arrested each year on weapons charges? According to this government report, in 2010 145,600 men were arrested in the US on weapons charges. Compare that with 13,420 women. So, women were responsible for just under 12% of weapons arrests in the US in that year.

That supports the conclusion that gun crime is predominately caused by men. However, I assume there isn't a strong connection between people legally carrying weapons and people getting arrested for illegally having weapons. Those two groups probably don't overlap much.

I can think of two positive outcomes of this. First, there's the direct effect.

negative: gun taken away negative: increased risk of accidental gun violence