Free Republic

On March 30, the Georgia House passed the Senate’s Constitutional Carry bill, SB 319, with an amendment. From the eagletribune.com: ATLANTA — The Georgia House on Wednesday approved a bill that would let Georgians carry a concealed handgun without first getting a license from the state.Senate Bill 319 passed 100-67, with the Republican majority supporting it and Democrats opposing it. The bill is similar to a House measure lawmakers passed earlier this month.Presenting the bill, Rep. Mandi Ballinger said there was no need to rehash the debate from a few weeks ago.On March 28, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed House...

On March 29, 2022, Florida Governor DeSantis held a press conference. At about 6:30 minutes, he announced he vetoed the Congressional district map put forward by the Florida legislature. He took questions after his announcements. There was a question about other issues. Governor Desantis responded. From thefloridachannel.org, here is a transcript:I would love to have property insurance. I would love to have data privacy. I would love to have Constitutional Carry. There’s a lot of great things. But you know we just went through a legislative session where they failed to deliver on some of those priorities, and so what...

We are strange creatures. We see the world and build mental models of how the world works. Soon, those models become more significant to us than reality itself. That is dangerous when so much of our “experience” is from the news and entertainment media. We think our tiny screens show us what is really happening. We want to be carful about what we put into our heads. Here in the USA, there are over a million violent crimes a year. The vast majority of them do not involve the criminal using a gun. At the same time, honest citizens like...

Due to the energetic efforts of Nebraska State Senator Tom Brewer, Nebraska is getting close to passing LB 773, the Nebraska Constitutional Carry bill in 2022.LB 773 has already been pulled (forced out by a vote of the Senate) from the committee, and passed the General File cloture vote with 33 votes, and three more that switched their votes when they saw it was going to pass.It was a very close thing. In the Nebraska unicameral legislature, each bill has to pass through three votes which may be filibustered. The three votes are in the General File (done), the Select...

On Monday, March 21, 2022, at about 3 p.m., Indiana Governor Holcomb signed the Constitutional Carry bill, HEA 1296 into law. From Fox59.com: INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb has signed House Bill 1296 into law which repeals the law that requires a person to obtain a license to carry a handgun in Indiana. The governor also vetoed a bill that would have barred transgender girls from playing girls’ sports.The law will go into effect on July 1, 2022.Indiana Second Amendment activists have been working hard to pass a Constitutional Carry bill. This year, they overcame several hurdles put in...

Most adults and of-age teens in the United States go through the same process of getting licensed to drive: classroom or online instruction, as many as 100 hours of practice behind the wheel, and a skills test. Far fewer people have that experience when seeking a license to carry concealed weapons. On Monday, Ohio became the 23rd state to enact a law eliminating permits as a requirement for concealed carry. The Buckeye State closely followed Alabama, where Gov. Kay Ivey signed a similar law on March 10. The back-to-back wins for gun-rights advocates who want to see fewer restrictions on...

Nebraska Constitutional Carry (permitless carry) is advancing in the Nebraska Senate. On March 11, 2022, the Senate (Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral legislature) voted for Cloture on LB 773. Cloture votes in Nebraska are required after 8 hours of debate in this stage of the legislative process, which is designated a General File. The General File vote is considered the most difficult hurdle for a bill to overcome on the way to becoming law in Nebraska. The cloture vote needed 33 votes, or two-thirds of the senate, to proceed. There are 49 senators in the Nebraska Senate....

On March 11, 2022, the Georgia House passed the Constitutional Carry bill, HB 1358, 94 to 57, with 5 Representatives not voting, and 24 excused. HB 1358 defines a “lawful weapons carrier” as a person who is eligible for a license to carry, any non-resident who would otherwise be eligible for a license to carry, and any person from another state who has a license to carry a weapon in another state. The bill then removes restrictions from carry in many areas which were previously restricted. Here is an example, showing part of the proposed law: (f) Notwithstanding 16-12-127, any...

A little before 5 pm on Monday, March 14, the Ohio Governor signed SP 215 into law. With the addition of Ohio, there are now 23 states in the Constitutional Carry club. From buckeyefirearms.com:At approximately 4:50 p.m. on Monday, March 14, 2022, Gov. Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 215, which will make it legal to carry a concealed handgun without a license in Ohio 91 days after signing.“This is a day that will go down in history,” said Dean Rieck, Executive Director of Buckeye Firearms Association. “It has been about 18 years since Ohio enacted HB 12 to bring licensed...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — As of June 12, you no longer need a permit or training to carry a concealed handgun in Ohio. Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday signed Republican-backed legislation to allow people in the state to carry a concealed handgun without a permit or training and no longer require them to proactively tell law enforcement during traffic stops that they’re armed.

At approximately 4:50 p.m. on Monday, March 14, 2022, Gov. Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 215, which will make it legal to carry a concealed handgun without a license in Ohio 91 days after signing. "This is a day that will go down in history," said Dean Rieck, Executive Director of Buckeye Firearms Association. "It has been about 18 years since Ohio enacted HB 12 to bring licensed concealed carry to the state. "However, the brass ring has always been to eliminate the licensing mandate, which people refer to as permitless carry or Constitutional Carry. And now, finally, that day...

On March 10, 2022, one hour after the Alabama legislature sent her House Bill 272, Governor Kay Ivey signed Constitutional Carry into law. The bill will become effective on January 1, 2023. Alabama has joined 21 other states in the Constitutional Carry club, increasing the number to 22.From Governor Ivey’s office:MONTGOMERY – Governor Kay Ivey on Thursday signed House Bill 272, known as the constitutional carry bill, into law, defending law abiding Alabamians’ Second Amendment rights.“Unlike states who are doing everything in their power to make it harder for law abiding citizens, Alabama is reaffirming our commitment to defending our...

The Alabama legislature has sent the Constitutional Carry bill (permitless carry), HB272, as amended by the Senate, to Governor Ivey at 3:05 p.m. on March 10, 2022. The bill from the Senate was accepted by the House with a vote of 70 to 29. The Senate concurred 24 to 6.This correspondent expects Governor Ivey to sign the bill, making Alabama the 22, 23, or 24th state to restore Constitutional carry.Governor Ivey has a primary coming up on May 24, 2022. With a vote in the house of 70%, and in the Senate of 80%, it would be foolish for Governor...

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)-— On March 8, 2022, the Indiana legislature, on the last day of the session, after byzantine twists and turns of the legislative process, voted to pass Constitutional Carry legislation three hours before the session ended for the year. Indiana Second Amendment activists have been working to pass similar legislation for years. In 2021, a Constitutional Carry (permitless) bill passed the House 64 to 31, before being killed in the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Liz Brown (R -15).In 2022, Senator Brown worked hard to kill a new bill, and came very close to succeeding. In 2022, the Republican...

A bill that would abolish the need for a background check or a license to carry a gun in public passed the Georgia House on Friday, moving a step closer to the 'constitutional carry' that Gov. Brian Kemp and other Republicans have promised to deliver in an election year. House Bill 1358 passed 94-57, moving to the Senate for more debate. The Senate passed a similar measure last month. Republicans said it was needed to allow people to more easily protect themselves from crime, citing civil unrest seen in some 2020 protests over racial injustice in Atlanta.

A confidential source has informed me of events involving the Indiana Constitutional Carry legislation in 2022. The source claimed Senator Liz Brown (R) of Senate District 15 has been the major force blocking the passage of Constitutional Carry. The source claimed Governor Holcombe wants the bill killed and is pushing Senator Brown to do the killing. In particular, the source stated that Senator Liz Brown was adamant, and emotional in the Republican Caucus meeting on Thursday, March 3rd, denouncing a provision in HB 1077, which required minors who use a firearm in a crime to be tried as adults. The...

After the Constitutional Carry bill in Indiana was effectively killed in the Judiciary Committee, with the connivance of the Chair, Liz Brown (R), the bill has been resurrected by Second Amendment supporting Republicans. From wrtv.com: INDIANAPOLIS — House Bill 1077, known as the ‘Constitutional Carry’ bill, has been effectively revived in the Indiana Senate after GOP lawmakers moved language from the now-dead bill into the unrelated Senate Bill 209.SB 209 was originally a bill that addressed drug scheduling, but all that language was removed, and replaced with the original HB 1077 language.In the conference committee, no testimony was allowed before...

On Thursday, 3 March 2022, the Alabama Senate passed House Bill 272, Constitutional Carry, with Amendments. The Amendments were added the previous day. From alreporter.com: The Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would repeal the state’s law requiring a permit to carry a concealed weapon. The bill now heads to the full Senate for consideration of final passage.Looking at Legiscan, HB 272 passed the full Senate, 23 to 5, with 7 abstaining, on March 3rd, 2022. Four Republicans and three Democrats abstained from voting. They may have agreed not to vote, with offsetting votes. It is...

The Ohio Legislature has completed its votes for the Constitutional Carry bill, (permitless carry) on March 2, 2022. The bill will have some administrative procedures completed, and will then be sent to Governor DeWine. This will give Governor DeWine plenty of time to sign the bill in order to gain advantage from it in the upcoming Ohio primary election, which is scheduled for May 3rd, 2022. From buckeyefirearms.org:On Wednesday, March 2, 2022, the Ohio House voted 57-35 to pass Senate Bill 215, sponsored by Sen. Terry Johnson. About an hour later, the Senate concurred with a vote of 24-8. This...

What follows is this correspondent’s view of what happened at the Indiana Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and vote on February 23, 2022. The hearing was on HB 1077, Constitutional Carry. There were about eight hours of testimony at the hearing. This correspondent did not watch all of it. The impressions gained by watching a couple of hours of the hearing, and the votes, have been supplemented with comments from the Indiana Gun Owners Forum, where members watched most of the hearing and votes. The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Liz Brown (R) was openly hostile to the bill. The...