U.S.A. – In 2013, the Arkansas legislature passed, and a Democrat governor signed a bill that reformed Arkansas’s gun law.
That bill created the same conditions as had existed in Vermont for 90 years: Constitutional Carry. In 2023, the Arkansas legislature passed an apparent and clear, in-your-face, straight-up Constitutional Carry bill, given the obvious success of the 2013 law.
In 2013, the AR legislature passed HB1700. Democrat Governor Mike Beebe immediately said he had no idea he was signing a Constitutional Carry bill. Part of the reform, which went into effect on August 16, 2013, was a change in the definition of what was unlawful carrying of a weapon. The changes are underlined below:
(a) A person commits the offense of carrying a weapon if he or she possesses a handgun, knife, or club on or about his or her person, in a vehicle occupied by him or her, or otherwise readily available for use with a purpose to attempt to unlawfully employ the handgun, knife, or club as a weapon against a person.
The law in the United States defines what is not allowed. Anything which is not forbidden is allowed, unlike tyrannies, where only what is allowed is legal, and often, what is allowed is mandatory!
HB defined, as does Vermont law, that carrying a weapon is only illegal if the intent is to attempt to unlawfully use the weapon against another person. The defense of self and others has always been legal in the United States.
The Democrat Attorney General, McDaniel, issued an opinion the law did not mean what it said. This muddied the waters for a year and a half. In 2015, a Republican AG admitted the law meant what it said, and that is how it would be enforced.
In 2023, SB480 is another straight-up Constitutional Carry bill to clarify what was a manufactured controversy in 2013. In 2013, Arkansas was the fourth state to restore Constitutional Carry. In 2023, 25 states have Constitutional Carry, and Florida has just signed into law a permitless carry statute. Nebraska is halfway to becoming a Constitutional Carry state, and South Carolina’s Constitutional Carry bill has passed the House and is coming up for a Senate vote.
SB480 passed the Senate on April 3, 28 to 6. SB480 passed the House on April 6, 81 to 11. Constitutional Carry is no longer controversial in Arkansas. There was no “blood in the streets”. Murder rates did not rise. Citizens exercising rights protected by the Second Amendment did not have dire consequences for the state.
The clarification provided by SB480 is simple and direct. From the bill:
(a) The purpose of this subchapter is solely to establish concealed carry licensing for the purpose of providing licensees reciprocity in other states that require a license to carry a concealed handgun in order to carry a concealed handgun.
(b) This subchapter does not require a person to obtain a license to carry a concealed handgun in order to carry a concealed handgun in this state.
SB480 has been delivered to Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), who is expected to sign the bill.
Constitutional or permitless carry is no longer considered controversial in over half of the United States. 26 states now have permitless carry. This amazing validation of rights protected by the Second Amendment has happened in a tidal wave of state legislation over the last 20 years, with most of it in the last decade.
The Supreme Court is not leading in enforcing rights protected by the Second Amendment. They are following the lead of the state legislatures.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
