Constitutional Carry Index

It's time for "Freedom To Carry" (FTC) to replace so-called "right to carry" (CCW)

CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY:
No tests. No taxes. No paperwork. No fingerprints in the criminal database.
No photographs. No expiration dates. No plastic-coated permission slip.
Just rights. For all law-abiding adults. Train because it's right, not state mandated.

Carry permits (CCW) have helped educate the public about the value of firearms,
the safety and crime deterrence that an armed public represents,
and have helped destroy the blood-in-the-street myths the "news" media
and hoplophobic officials and others spread like a disease.

Now it's time to get back to the Culture of Marksmanship our Founders
envisioned, a nation trained to arms, where even young lads and ladies
take their place as knowledgable and safe firearms owners.

Constitutional Carry is the next step in this logical progression
as America regains an uninfringed right to keep and bear arms.

24 States planning to introduce
or that have already introduced
Constitutional Carry laws in their legislatures:

Alabama • Colorado • Georgia • Indiana • Iowa • Kentucky • Louisiana
Maine • Michigan • Minnesota • Nevada • North Carolina • Ohio
Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina
South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Virginia • Wisconsin

These states above are fighting with people who don't want this freedom for their residents.
South Dakota actually passed a bill, vetoed by republican governor Dennis Daugaard.
The opposition always argues that Constitutional Carry will cause havoc and crime,
which never happens when it passes elsewhere. All that happens is crime drops.
The opposition is irrational, based on the evidence,
obssessed with a paranoid delusion and in need of care.

(If your state has plans for Constitutional Carry let us know.)
Below -- Tips on getting it enacted in your state.

15 STATES WITH CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY
(in chronological order):

Vermont has had Constitutional Carry since the nation's founding in 1791 --
they never enacted any law banning the right to discreetly bear arms.

Montana enacted Constitutional Carry in 1991, for all areas
outside city limits (99.4% of the state by area, not by population), and is working on the rest.

Texas enacted Constitutional Carry "light" in 2007
as the "Motorist Protection Act," freeing people to carry in their vehicles,
and to and from their vehicles and their homes, land or business (but not otherwise).

Arizona got full Constitutional Carry in 2010,
the third state with real Freedom To Carry (FTC),
coined the phrase Constitutional Carry to describe the new law,
and the sky has not fallen, despite desperate fears to the contrary.

Arkansas passed HB1700 (Act 746) on August 16, 2013 to get Constitutional Carry.

West Virginia had to override the Governor's veto to pass its law in early March 2016.

Idaho pushed it through and got it signed later in March 2016.

Mississippi succeeded in enacting Constitutional Carry in April 2016.

Missouri overrode a governor's veto of SB656 to pass Constitutional Carry on 9/15/16, effective Jan. 1, 2017.

New Hampshire passed SB12 for Constitutional Carry on Feb. 22, 2017.

North Dakota passed HB1169 for Constitutional Carry and the governor signed it on March 23, 2017.

(as of June 14, 2017)

Many states have some level or form of Constitutional Carry
for homes, businesses, land you own or lease, during sporting pursuits,
in vehicles -- or in other situations with varying degrees or restrictions,
special conditions or rights-infringing red tape.

Every state had to endure the totally phony "BITS" scare tactic
("Blood In The Streets") from anti-rights bigots, misinformed police,
dishonest "news" media, left-wing idealogues, and hoplophobes
(people with a morbid fear of guns who need but don't get treatment)
to enact this sound, reliable, proven public-safety policy.

Is your state next for Constitutional Carry?
Breathe the air of freedom!
Make it so:

My best advice would be to try to get as much law enforcement buy-in as you can from the beginning. Like it or not, the LEO lobbyists tend to have a lot of influence at state houses, and especially in the Governor's office. If you can get them to the table at the start, that's a big plus.

Even if you can't get them to concede anything, it makes a difference if you can go to legislators and staffers and be able to say that you tried to negotiate with them and address their issues, but they refused to talk to you. It puts the onus on them to concede something or deal with the bill as is, a position they are not accustomed to being in. If you reached out your hand to them, and they slapped it away, that's a talking point.

Same goes for the NRA. The NRA state liaison can be a help or hindrance, depending on the person, but I do not recommend that you run a gun bill without their buy-in. They have a lot of influence at state capitols, even in traditionally anti-gun legislatures, and if you don't have their cooperation, you probably won't get very far.

Not being sure how much lobbying experience you have, I hesitate to tell you how to do the job. However, always keep in mind that facts are paramount. Never be caught in a lie or a half-truth. If you don't have an answer on any particular question, simply tell them you don't have it, but you will get it, then do so. Leave the lies to the other guys, it catches up to them in the end.

Also, be prepared to have many people you believe are or ought to be "on your side" come out against the bill, particularly from the ranks of instructors. They will argue that no one should be able to carry a gun without training and permits. Understand that constitutional arguments, despite their validity, will mostly fall on deaf ears.

The stark reality is that, from a purely statistical standpoint, there is no evidence that shows that training results in a safer society. You can contact Prof. John Lott for confirmation of this thesis. While this seems counterintuitive, and many will argue exactly that, the numbers don't lie. There are many states that issue permits with no training requirement, and they are as safe as those that require training. Ditto for those states that don't require permits at all.

Keep in mind that this does not, and should not, mean that I, or you, or anyone else, should be anti-training. On the contrary, gun-safety training and marksmanship should always be front and center. I am a certified firearms instructor, as are several of my colleagues, and we all encourage everyone to be trained and competent. What we oppose, and what we recommend that you focus on, is one-size-fits-all government-knows-best mandates. Just as we don't simply hammer on the square peg to make it fit the round hole, we shouldn't make everyone fit into the mold of a standardized government training class and call it good. The free market can, and should, decide.

And let me add -- The government-mandated class for CCW had weird elements and omited a lot, especially for newcomers, so people everywhere felt it missed the mark. Forced to obey the standards, instructors avoided material they considered crucial. (In AZ, the lesson plan allocated insufficient time to various segments, so adding material wasn't possible, and omiting "approved" material was prohibited). Now, classes are run by professionals who decide, based on their experience and the students they reach out to, how to properly structure a class.

Many of these government "cartel" trainers became a problem. They only went into business because the government mandate forced people to take their classes, and they recognized that free ride. They would never have been able to be in business if they had to attract customers based on merit or marketing (or they would have been doing so already). The threat of losing their government rice bowl turned them into a lobby against gun rights.

We understood this would happen even as we pressed the early permission-slip system into place in 1994, 16 years earlier. Arizona was a Constitutional Carry state for open carry since statehood in 1912, as are many states, a fact that often goes unnoticed. It was a price we had to pay, those permits, and slings and arrows we had to endure, to advance our rights one step forward at a time. The bigots eventually softened their untennable positions and armed citizens melded into society without incident. The virulence with which government-licensed trainers fought us surprised me. So, don't you be surprised. You're an American. You can do this.

Contact:
Alan Korwin
BLOOMFIELD PRESS
"We publish the gun laws."
12621 N. Tatum, Suite 440
Phoenix, AZ 85032
602-996-4020 Phone
602-494-0679 FAX
1-800-707-4020 Orders
https://www.gunlaws.com
alan@gunlaws.com
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