{"id":91650,"date":"2023-04-07T13:14:49","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T18:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=91650"},"modified":"2023-04-07T13:14:49","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T18:14:49","slug":"91650","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=91650","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Arkansas House OKs bill allowing permitless concealed carry<\/a><\/p>\n

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) \u2014 A permit would not be required to carry a concealed handgun in Arkansas under a bill lawmakers sent Thursday to Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, which supporters say is meant to clear up a decade-old disagreement about the state\u2019s gun laws.<\/p>\n

Gov. Sanders\u2019 office said she plans to sign the measure approved by the majority-Republican House on a 81-11 vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor strongly supports the Second Amendment,\u201d spokeswoman Alexa Henning said in a statement. \u201cThis bill further clarifies that Arkansas is a constitutional carry state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both gun rights and gun control advocates already widely considered Arkansas to be one of more than two dozen states that don\u2019t require a concealed carry permit. That followed a 2013 change to the state\u2019s gun laws that prompted differing interpretations on how it\u2019s affected the state\u2019s concealed carry requirements.<\/p>\n

The bill was approved Thursday with no debate in the House, but opponents have questioned the impact the legislation would have on a 2017 law that allows concealed handguns in certain locations, including the state Capitol. That law allows guns in previously-barred locations if someone undergoes additional training and gets an \u201cenhanced\u201d permit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to cause huge amounts of confusion with respect to the enhanced concealed carry,\u201d Democratic Rep. Nicole Clowney told members of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week, referring to the 2017 law.<\/p>\n

But supporters of the bill said it wouldn\u2019t have any impact on that part of the law and the enhanced carry requirements would still exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we need this bill to pass to provide that clarification out there so we don\u2019t have citizens basically being harassed because there\u2019s a misunderstanding of what you can or cannot do,\u201d Republican Rep. Marcus Richmond, the bill\u2019s co-sponsor, told the House before Thursday\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n

There are more than 190,000 active concealed handgun licenses in Arkansas, and about 30,000 of them are enhanced licenses, according to the state\u2019s Department of Public Safety.<\/p>\n

The bill heads to Sanders\u2019 desk as Republicans in other states have been loosening gun laws, despite mass shootings in recent years, including the fatal shooting of three children and three adults at a Nashville, Tennessee, Christian school last month.<\/p>\n

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis this week signed a new law that will allow concealed handguns to be carried without a permit. That law takes effect in July.<\/p>\n

When Sanders signs Arkansas\u2019 legislation, it won\u2019t take effect until 90 days after the Legislature adjourns its session, meaning the measure wouldn\u2019t be enforced until this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arkansas House OKs bill allowing permitless concealed carry LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) \u2014 A permit would not be required to carry a concealed handgun in Arkansas under a bill lawmakers sent Thursday to Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, which supporters say is meant to clear up a decade-old disagreement about the state\u2019s gun laws. Gov. … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91651,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91650\/revisions\/91651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}