Jan “Headless Bodies” Brewer will be
deciding who carries concealed firearms
in your state.
In the great world of non-problems, the House of Representatives, fresh from defending the motto of the United States (
In the rich we trust – that's it, right?), now strikes against another engine of oppression, the ability of states to control who gets to carry a concealed handgun within their borders. HR 822, the
National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, is now scheduled for a vote in the House on Tuesday, November 15.
Of course, this has been a long-held fantasy of our friends over at the National Rifle Association, who among other have been up to when they aren't accusing the president of participation in an international conspiracy to take away our guns?
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.
And, yes, I know, officially Joe Arpaio himself doesn't 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 tindictator or his poodle in the governor's chair, it matters not for the purposes of termination of local control over concealed firearm carry permits.
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 the public official in South Succotash that issued the concealed carry permit, once it's done, it's just as if your own sheriff issued a concealed weapons permit.
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 UPDATED, please see below * * * , and where a state state senator recently pointed a loaded pistol at a reporter 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, and in fact, it is states like California, where the sheriffs are reluctant to issue concealed handgun permits, that are the real target of the National Right to Pack Concealed Heat Act.
Now, you might think that the old conservative doctrine of State's Rights might stop this. The legal analysis on that is: Fuck it.
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.
UPDATE. There seems to be some issue about whether Arizona allows concealed weapons in public schools, see below, if I feel like it, I might address this in another diary.
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 of course, and Tim McVeigh for example would not have had to take a course as an honorably discharged veteran), 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.
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.)
Oregon imposes stricter rules on issuance of concealed handgun permits than does Arizona. In particular, Oregon, unlike Arizona, has the following requirements:
* 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 other than Oregon residents, 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 not to do so. The NRA would take away this choice from the people of Oregon.
Oregon by the way, issues concealed handgun permits liberally. Check out 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. However, the special conditions that Oregon placed in its rule, which are tailored to specific social conditions in the state or Oregon, would be wiped out when all that one has to do is move across the state line and persuade Arizona (as appears easy to do) to issue a concealed handgun permit.
(Note: This is a rework of my earlier diary where I was criticized for being an ignorant fool, which I continue to be.)