Thing is, most high population states are &quot;pro-gun&quot; if you score that as having a shall issue concealed carry regime.<p>If for no other reason than that they total 43, and out of the 7 restrictive states, only those two are &quot;high population&quot;, the others being Hawaii (40th in population), Maryland (19th, ~1&#x2F;3 of NY), Massachusetts (15th, ditto), New Jersey (11th, ~1&#x2F;2 of NY), Rhode Island sort of (43rd).<p>And you have to go down to 29th ranked Connecticut before you get to a <i>de facto</i> shall issue state.  California and Massachusetts are also <i>de facto</i> shall issue in many counties&#x2F;towns, although obviously not most of the high population ones.