This article in the Arizona Republic quotes heavily from NRA Board member Todd Rathner, who speaks about a number of proposed bills to liberalize Arizona’s weapons laws. They are reportedly even seeking legalizing concealed carry bill without a requirement to first obtain a permit or license, which has some D.C. based people in hysterics:
Two bills, one to allow concealed weapons without a permit and the other to exempt guns made and kept in the state from federal regulation, each has more than a dozen legislators backing them. If passed, Arizona would be only the third state in the nation to allow either of the looser restrictions.
Everitt called the proposal to no longer require a concealed-carry permit “crazy.”
“You would have dangerous individuals and criminals carrying weapons in public,” he said.
And presumably Everitt thinks they already aren’t? I don’t know enough about Arizona politics to know whether this has any chance of passing, but if it did, Arizona is a state with a major city. Alaska and Vermont are interesting, in that they don’t require a license to carry firearms concealed or unconcealed, but it’s easy for opponents to dismiss this with “It’ll never work for our state. We’re too urban, too populated. Alaska and Vermont are very rural states that don’t have the same problems we do.”
All it really takes is one state with big cities and sprawling suburbs to pass this, and when the sky doesn’t fall, we can probably start passing it in other states. In the late 80s it was Florida that started the shall-issue licensing trend, and it started a tidal wave that spread across the country. In most states, the votes just aren’t going to be there to pass something like this, but they weren’t with concealed carry either, until suddenly we got the votes in Florida, and the rest is history. I have my doubts that the Arizona Legislature has the votes to pass this, but it they did, it might be the push needed to start the dominoes falling.
That would be great. Its not like cops and DAs are going to run out of other charges to lock up gangbangers with. If it passes chicken little will scream and holler, but the sky won’t fall.
I’m terrible at knowing the pulse of the greater public. If they change this, there are several cascading changes that will need to be made. There are some provisions for carry (not just concealed) that apply only to CCW permit holders.
It’s also nice that the proposed legislation would apply not just to handguns.
I’d still keep the permit, because it allows me to purchase a firearm without another background check. But I’d welcome the permit to become ‘rights+’ rather than ‘you may exercise your rights in a discrete manner now.’ I do think that the CCW program in AZ has encouraged people to get *some* training. I hope we can keep the education going.
The education, at present, is demonstrated by a multiple-guess test and 7 of 10 holes in a man-sized target. Anywhere on said target. It’s kind of a low bar for firearm education.
At what range is the target? I was suprised to find out how (relatively) easy the NJ police qual course was
Five at five yards, five at ten. The target is a silhouette, waist up, including arms. Anything inside the lines counts.
OK – that is significantly easier than the NJ PD Q-course. And to be honest, I kind of think anyone who can’t manage that ought not to be carrying in public.
While my base position is that freedom isn’t nearly popular enough here in Arizona I would give the bill at least a 50% chance of passing and being signed. There are plenty of Republican officeholders (and a few Democrats) who will vote for anything that will gain them some votes in November given their recent vote to refer a 17% sales tax hike to the May ballot.
http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/49leg/6s/bills/sb1001o.asp
““You would have dangerous individuals and criminals carrying weapons in public,†[Everitt] said.”
Uh, maybe somebody should tell him that felons aren’t allowed to own guns, much less to carry them.
To the antis, all individuals are dangerous…
Well. I believe Everitt was refering to those yet to be captured, but if he actually looked at it he’d find that even now criminals don’t care about the concealed weapons requirements. They’ve already decided how and when they want to carry and they don’t exactly care what the law says. This law will just allow those of us who do obey the laws to better protect ourselves and our loved ones. Unfortunately i believe there are too many people who believe like Everitt that some how a law is going to prevent a murderer from murdering people.