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University of Colorado Boulder finance professor Stephen Billings won an award for research claiming that concealed carry permits may be linked to higher levels of crime victimization.

The academic researcher, who received the Greenwald Family Award for Firearm Violence and Injury Prevention Research Excellence, asserted in a study published three years ago that there exists a 5.3% increase in neighborhood crime for new firearms associated with carry permits.

Billings claimed that “when people get a concealed carry permit, they don’t suddenly become less likely to be victims of violent crime,” saying that they “are just as likely to be victimized, but when it happens, the situation is often more serious” because their firearms could be stolen.