Tennessee up to 471,882 permits in July 2014, Michigan at 558,403, Utah at 550,663, and Florida at 1,290,362 ~ At what point do people have the right to defend themselves

Click on above screenshots to enlarge them. It is pretty amazing that just seven states now have a total of just seven states account for over 5 million concealed handgun permits. Indiana has had about a 13 percent increase in the number of permits in just 9 months.

	latest	After about 6mnths or noted otherwise
Florida	1,290,362	1,215,708	6%
Indiana	557,789	537,964	4%
Michigan	558,403	425,972	31%
Minnesota	175,026	159,968	9%
Pennsylvania	872,000
Tennessee	471,882	441,171	7%
Texas	708,048	584,850	21%	Change from 2012 to 2013
Utah	550,663	535,857	3%
	5,184,173

UPDATE: The number of permits in Lenoir County, NC has gone up 1,000% percent in 10 years.

The presence of crime is causing concealed weapons permits to rise. In the last 10 years permits have gone up 1000% in Lenoir County.
"They're applying for a concealed weapons permit because they want to be able to protect themselves and they want to be able to protect their families." Sheriff Chris Hill said.
In 2008, 210 people applied and in 2013 it jumped to more than 800 applicants. . . .

UPDATE: Illinois now has seen about 84,000 permit applicants. Presumably almost all will have their permits approved. Still many fewer than the unrealistic prediction of 300,000 by the state police.

UPDATE: From the West Virginia Associated Press: It looks as if West Virginia has about 126,514 permits that were issued over the last five years and that there were large changes in the number of permits issued in 2012 and 2013. That would represent quite an increase from 92,000 active permit holders in 2011.

In 2009, county sheriffs’ departments issued 11,160 permits allowing residents to carry concealed handguns in most public places. In 2013, that number had jumped to 44,981.The largest increase was from 2012 to 2013, when the number of permits issued annually increased by more than 15,000, up from 29,712 in 2012.
Those numbers, compiled by the West Virginia State Police, are only the permits issued each year. A permit is valid for five years, so the total number of West Virginians licensed to carry concealed handguns is much higher.
While some may have been revoked or surrendered, a total of 126,514 permits were issued in the five years including 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. . . .