"I'm (or my stooge, see below) in yur
state issuing concealed gunz permitz"
(Photo: Gage Skidmore)
Ever wonder what our friends over at the National Rifle Association have been up to when they aren't
accusing the president of participation in an international conspiracy to take away our guns?
Yes they have once more introduced the (via some sockpuppets in the supinely complacent national legislature) HR 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011. Let me explain how this works. Let's say that a county or a state, run by, oh, for example, Joe Arpaio (R-Mussolini), who counts among his claimed achievements, arresting Elvis Presley, decides to issue somebody a concealed weapons permit.*
Once that person has the permit, every other state is required to recognize Joe Arpaio's ... err ... Jan Brewer's decision to issue a concealed weapons permit to that person. It doesn't what whether Arizona's criteria are the same as other counties in other states. And it doesn't matter that you can't vote for, or against Imperial Wizard Russell Pearce, the Joe McCarthy of the Arizona Senate (only without that winning charm that ol' Tailgunner Joe use to have.) Once Joe Arpaio issues a concealed weapons permit to somebody, it's just as if your own sheriff issued a concealed weapons permit.
What is thy bidding, my Master?
Now, Arizona, this is the state which just legalized carrying firearms, concealed without a permit, in almost all public buildings, including the state legislature and every public school in the state, and where a state state senator recently
pointed a loaded pistol at a report ... in the state capitol.
But let's be realistic. Chances are that the Meth Lab of Democracy that was formerly known as the State of Arizona will only be affecting you if you live, for example, in Los Angeles County. But this isn't just a problem of fending off the Arizona lunatics. There are 3,143 separate counties in the United States. Once HR 822 becomes law, once a sheriff in one of these counties issues a concealed weapons permit, the other 3,142 have to go along. Oh, the Freedom®.
*UPDATE: It's been pointed out that Joe Arpaio himself doesn't officially issue concealed weapons permits, and this true, it is actually done by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, which ultimately reports to Arpaio's stooge, Jan "Headless Bodies" Brewer (R-Jupiter), but whether handguns in Arizona (or any other state) are issued by the local sheriff or some tin dictator or his poodle in the governor's chair, it matters not for the purposes of termination of local control over concealed firearm carry permits.
See below for some of the fun that will ensue when, for example, Arizona sets the standard nationwide for the issuance of concealed carry permits.
In Arizona, gasically if you're over 21 (gotta be of drinking age!), haven't been convicted of a felony or a domestic violence offense, haven't been committed to a mental institution, aren't an illegal aiien, and can complete a gun safety course (mucho exceptions to this BTW), Arizona issues you a permit to be your own Wyatt Earp. And here's the even better part: Arizona doesn't require you to be a resident of Arizona so long as you are a U.S. citizen. Check out Arizona Revised Statute 13-3112:
The department of public safety shall issue a permit to an applicant who meets all of the following conditions:
1. Is a resident of this state or a United States citizen.
Except now you don't even need a permit in Arizona to pack heat, unless you want to carry in a bar or you need a permit to get reciprocity in states that allow it.
(Oh, and P.S. that firearms safety course? Fuck that!)
Now, let's take an example of the effect that HR 822, if passed, would have upon another state, Oregon, which has, in my opinion, a very liberal concealed weapons permit law. The Arizona law is here and the Oregon law is here (scroll down to ORS 166.291.)
What I see is that since Arizona will issue concealed weapons permits to anyone in the country provided they are a U.S. citizen, regardless of whether they are a resident of Arizona, Oregon would then lose control of its local concealed weapons permitting process, because under HR 822, they would not be able to require that Arizona have the same standards before Arizona issues a concealed handgun permit. This would effectively repeal at least the following requirements of Oregon law:
* That the applicant not be on pretrial release for any offense of any kind;
* That the applicant not have been convicted, within four years prior to filing the application, of any misdemeanor offense
* that the applicant be a resident of the county from which the permit is sought (D'oh, if this gets through, the applicant wouldn't even need to be a resident of the United States, so long as he or she was a citizen.)
* that the applicant, if an alien, has resided as such a lawful permanent resident in the county for six months and has declared to the USCIS an intent to apply for citizenship
* that within the 4 years prior to the application, has not been found within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, for an offense which, if done by an adult would be either a felony, or if a misdemeanor, a crime of violence.
* that, with some exceptions, the applicant has not been convicted of a controlled substance offense or placed in a court-ordered drug diversion program.
* Special provisions tailored to Oregon mental health law restrict issuance of a permit to persons who have been found to be mentally ill and made the subject of a weapons bar.
There a variety of other differences, but you get the point. If cram-down reciprocity is required, Oregon would have to suspend all these provisions for anyone anywhere (even residents of the state of Oregon) provided they could get a permit from Arizona, which as far as I can tell has none of these restrictions.
Nothing would stop Oregon from recognizing out-of-state concealed weapons permits, but the people of Oregon have chosen to to do so, despite legislation that was introduced specifically to effect this.
Now, before everyone's mellow gets harshed, here this about the concealed carry laws in Oregon, from the ultraleftist Willamette Week (the editors stupidly believed that the fewer guns in society the fewer firearms deaths) about the ultraliberal Vera Katz
Before she was mayor of Portland, Vera Katz was speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives. She can take credit for passing the law that first required background checks for guns in Oregon. She is also responsible for the explosion in concealed-weapons permits.
In 1989, Katz, a Democrat, helped pass a law requiring background checks for gun-store purchases. But in a deal with the National Rifle Association, she also made Oregon a “shall-issue state” for concealed-handgun licenses. That means the state must issue a permit if a person qualifies.
Before that law, there were fewer than 20 concealed-weapons permits in Multnomah County. Now there are more than 19,000.
Now, I call increase from 20 concealed handgun permits to 19,000 in one county to be a rather significant amount. But this is tempered by the stricter (compared to Arizona) standards in Oregon for issuing these permits. For example, this same county has a diversion program for first time methamphetamine users. It's pretty successful, and anyway seems to be the only thing that has a hope of helping people who find themselves addicted to this terrible drug.
However, the legislature had decided that persons who go through the program, are, with some exceptions, not going to be trusted to carry a concealed handgun. If cram-down reciprocity becomes law, Oregon would lose the authority to make this judgment, so long as a permit holder's state didn't impose the same bar as Oregon's. Arizona, as just one example, does not contain this restriction, and in Arizona, you don't even need to be a resident to get a permit -- theoretically people resident in Oregon who were not eligible in this state could get a permit from Arizona -- and Oregon would be required to recognize it.