As House Democrats passed bills last week to expand background checks for would-be gun buyers—bills with no chance in the Senate or for a presidential signature—the National Rifle Association added Oklahoma and Kentucky to its decade-long string of successes to convince state legislators to eliminate laws requiring people to get permits and training to carry concealed firearms.
Kevin Stitt, the Republican governor of Oklahoma, signed House Bill 2597 into law Wednesday. Matt Bevin, the Republican governor of Kentucky, has said he will sign Senate Bill 150 this week. That will bring the total number of states with no-permit laws to 16. Legislators in two more states, North Carolina and South Carolina, are also considering no-permit bills. In 2009, such laws were on the books in just two states.
Behind all these laws is the National Rifle Association. Don’t expect it to stop this effort. Beginning in 1985, when the vast majority of states didn’t allow concealed permits for anyone except law enforcement or only under very strict limits, the extremist gun lobby began pushing to get all the states to issue concealed permits. Now every state and the District of Columbia does so, although in New York, California, and a few other states, these are still difficult to obtain except in more rural counties. Then, beginning 10 years ago, the NRA began the second phase of its campaign by pushing state legislatures to get rid of permits altogether. Anyone who can legally own a firearm can now legally carry it almost everywhere in those states.
The backers of no-permit laws call this “constitutional carry,” arguing that the 2nd Amendment gives everyone carte blanche to carry firearms wherever, whenever. In most places where states have eliminated the need for permits and training, the laws apply to both open and concealed carry, sometimes with exceptions for places such as courthouses, preschools, day cares, houses of worship, taverns, and election polling stations. But soon after these laws are passed, efforts are begun to whittle down any restrictions, allowing people to take their guns to church and into taverns, the latter being a place many frontier towns in the Old West forbade firearms, for obvious reasons.
While law enforcement leaders in most states haven’t strongly objected to issuing concealed-carry permits, this hasn’t been the case with no-permit laws.
In Oklahoma, for instance, the leader of the state’s largest law enforcement department denounced the new law at a press conference Friday, noting that not only are the previously mandated permit and its fee now gone, but so is the requirement for training:
“Saying that it makes communities safer, that’s (a) pretty tired and old statement, as far as I’m concerned," said Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty. "That’s not the case. We should be going the other direction and be more responsible about who we have carrying guns in this country.” [...]
“At least they’re responsible enough to go get a permit and go through the motions, pay for it. Now, you don’t have to do any of that,” he said. “Any individual can carry one at any point in time, regardless of how responsible they are.” [...]
“Most people don’t know how to use a firearm, they don’t know when they can take a life, they don’t know when it’s justifiable to use one.”
As in the past when talking about the bill, when he signed it Wednesday, Gov. Stitt hauled out one of the NRA’s hoary lines: “The best defense for a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Citty’s response was that citizens whipping out their guns to take out a “bad guy” have been shot by responding officers because a “good guy” without a uniform looks like just another guy with a gun.
Kentucky
In Kentucky, after the House voted 60-37 to approve SB 150 on Friday, the Kentucky State Fraternal Order of Police, a deeply conservative organization, tweeted: "We are supportive of the rights we protect for all citizens but have safety concerns with this bill as it stands. We are concerned this bill could have potentially deadly, unintended consequences." The Louisville Metro Police Department objected as well. They weren’t the only ones:
During Friday's debate, state Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, recalled the Kentucky legislature's decision in 2017 to approve a "Blue Lives Matter" law that made it a hate crime to target police officers and juxtaposed it against lawmakers' willingness to support the permitless concealed carry bill despite opposition from law enforcement.
"Actually, blue lives really don't matter, do they? Not much," said Marzian, who opposed SB 150. [...]
"It puts the lives of our law enforcement officers in danger, and I will not vote on a bill that needlessly endangers our children, our seniors, our men and our women," [said Democratic State Rep. Nima Kulkarni].
Until the new law takes effect, Kentuckians must get a permit to carrying a concealed gun, and that requires a background check, gun safety training, and a $60 fee. The state already allows gun owners to carry their firearm openly without a permit. Advocates of the no-permit law argued that the fee makes it hard for poor people to get a permit.
South Carolina
As in other states where permits are still required, South Carolina gun owners must pass a course taught by a certified concealed weapon instructor. But legislators have introduced the Constitutional Carry Act of 2019, which would let anyone who can legally own a gun carry it openly or concealed without a permit and without training. The bill is still in a subcommittee.
Members of the Lowcountry Students for Political Action say they are opposed to the legislation. Lauren Haselden said, “Anyone carrying a gun without training is a danger to everyone around them because they may not know the gun laws, how to properly store it or carry it properly with them.”
The group formed after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, last year. Pamela Gonzalez said, “We care about it because it’s a direct danger to us. We don’t need any more danger than we’ve been put to risk too.”
North Carolina
Legislators in North Carolina have also introduced a no-permit constitutional carry bill, attaching it to an omnibus gun bill, House Bill 61. The bill would allow anyone who legally owns a handgun to carry it concealed as long as s/he is also carrying an ID and hasn’t been drinking alcohol. As in other no-permit states, North Carolina would continue to issue permits to people who want them so they can carry their weapons in those states that reciprocally honor North Carolina’s concealed-carry permits.
The North Carolina House of Representatives passed a constitutional carry bill in 2017, but the Senate didn’t vote on it.
If either of the Carolinas enacts no-permit legislation, it will bring the total count of such laws to 17, a third of the states.