Concealed Carry Laws
Laws for firearms have been put into place over the years to protect gun owners so they can keep firearms for self-defense. The laws that cover concealed carry are different from state to state, but most require a permit to carry a gun on your person.
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Significance
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Concealed carry is having a concealed handgun or some other type of weapon while in public. If you carry a firearm on your person while in public, you need to know the laws for the state you are in. There is no federal law that governs concealed weapons, but 48 states have laws that allow certain concealed firearms. Permit policies, like the "No-Issue", "Shall-Issue" and the "May-Issue", vary from state to state.
No-Issue
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Illinois and Wisconsin are the states with a "No-Issue" policy, which means that private gun owners are not allowed to carry concealed. Washington D.C. also has a strict "No-Issue" policy for its residents. According to the NRA (National Rifle Association) website, two states--Alaska and Vermont--don't require a permit for anyone that is legally allowed to possess a firearm to carry concealed.
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May-Issue
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"May-Issue" policy states permit a gun owner to carry a concealed firearm, but the issuing of this permit is up to local authorities, like the police or sheriff's department. These have various requirements, and they all depend on the state and the local authority alone. If you wish to carry a concealed weapon and are traveling, you should make sure to research that state to see if a permit is required while driving through.
Shall-Issue
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The "Shall-Issue" policy means that the state cannot deny you a permit if you meet standards as established by the state law. Typically you need to pass a background check and a safety test, but the criteria for this permit does vary from state to state.
Considerations
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In article for Human Events.com entitled, "Is It Time for Federal Reciprocity of Concealed Carry Permits?", A.W.R. Hawkins makes a point that it may be time for the Federal government to step in with the permit regulations. It seems that some states, like Oregon, recognize the permit from states that border them directly. However, if a gun owner from Texas were to arrive and be pulled over, his permit would not be recognized. Reciprocity between states is inconsistent.
Benefits
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In right-to-carry states, the NRA noted that when citizens were allowed to carry concealed weapons, crime rate fell. When studying trends across the United States, it can be seen that as state laws for conceal and carry went in to effect, rapes and aggravated assaults went down 7 percent, and murders fell by 8.5 percent.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Two guns isolated on the white background image by Elnur from Fotolia.com
