Ice cream consumption does cause polio.

Anyways, yeah, concealed carry seems to have very little to do with this, weather was probably the main factor.

However, there has been at least one instance of a CCW holder stopping a crime, thus far: http://cdn.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/04/06/A-Whole-New-World-Chicago-Resident-With-CCW-Turns-Tables-On-Armed-Attackers

I have a question.

When someone shoots someone in self defense, is that classed as a criminal shooting? as in would it count towards the number of "shootings", if not then would it not be fairly reasonable to assume that the number of murders/shootings dropped because the number of claims of self defense rose?

It appears that fewer firearms in circulation means a low murder by firearm rate as evidenced in countries with tight gun laws. And maybe very high ownership rates also reduce murder rates because there is some sort of deterrance at a social consciousness level. Though I'm not sure if high ownership rates has been subject to serious study.

Isn't it still the case that the vast majority of murders are carried out by someone known to and fairly close with the victim? In which case concealed carry probably really has no material impact on these sorts of murders.

damn us aussies better get gunned up to get our national gun homocide rate down of 0.13/100,000

I never did claim the illinois allowing rights (conceal carry) reduced crime already. I merely posted the article to show hoplophobes that the passage of conceal carry, the expansion of rights does not at all make more blood in the streets, as gun grabbers would have you believe.

Though i came accross this article, which seems related and funny: 

CHICAGO POLICE ACCUSED OF COOKING LOWER CRIME STATS

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/04/19/Chicago-Police-Accused-of-Cooking-Lower-Crime-Stats

Actually, the real problem with these arguments is just that there seems to be little to no global correlation in regards to gun laws versus murder rates, either positively or negatively. Even within the USA, there's a substantial difference between New York (Low) and Illinois (High), despite both being fairly strict.. and also between New Hampshire (Low) and Louisiana (High) which have relatively "loose" gun restrictions.

Even shown in this thread how disputable claims are in both Chicago and Australia. The UK has seen an increase in the murder rate and violent crime rates since banning handguns, and the UK is claimed to be the most violent country in Europe, despite having some of the strictest gun laws across the continent.

The issue being that with such a wide disparity in stats, any "study" is easy to manipulate depending on who's paying for it, simply by picking locations and timeframes that suit their needs.

You don't know what in the heck you're talking about.....The murder rate is down because it's been winter, TRUST ME the murder rate is going to SKYROCKET this summer. GD's (Gangsta Disciples) and BD's (Black Disciples) are currently at war, almost every month someone from each faction has been murdered.

Just this week Blood Money (Chief Keef's uncle who is a BD) was just murdered in a drive by, so K.I (Lil Jo Jo's cousin who is a GD) was just murdered 2 days later in drive by.

Chicago's murder rate isn't high because there aren't guns for law abiding citizens , it's high because they have a SERIOUS gang problem. You think giving law abiding citizens guns is going to lower the murder rate? lol

These kids are having shoot outs with heavily armed police what makes you think they would be scared of a law abiding citizen with 1 or 2 hand guns? The only thing that is going to fix this problem is giving the kids opportunities to make legal money. Until then they'll continue joining gangs and committing crimes to feed their families.

The poverty rate for blacks in south side chicago is 34.1 compared to whites 10.9. The unemployment rate for blacks is 19.5 compared to whites 8.1. The median income for blacks is $29,371 compared to whites $58,752.

Crime/Gangs/Murder is synonymous with poverty, if somehow the job outlook could be fixed to give these kids legal money to feed their family they wouldn't have to run the streets to get their next dollar while killing.

I hate living 15 mins from Chicago. The violence is beginning to spread out around the city. People are moving out of Chicago and bringing all this crap with them to our suburbs. I sleep with a small switchblade next to my bed to make sure I can protect this house and my family. I'll do whatever to make sure they are safe. It shouldn't have to be this way, I shouldn't even have to think about this, but sadly it's becoming a reality. I'll move out of this corrupt state eventually. 15 years ago this was a fantastic place to live.

Only if the shooting is backed up as self defense.  

Which is actually a VERY hard case to win most of the time.