36 Yes
19 No
5 No Vote
It's on it's way to Governor Jan Brewer who is expected to sign it. It would become law later this year.
This is a big step in the right direction and I'm very glad to see it pass.Arizona Citizens Defense League wrote:
SB 1108 eliminates the prohibition and penalties for law-abiding adults who carry a concealed weapon without a permit, while increasing the penalties for criminals who carry a concealed weapon.
The concealed weapons (CCW) permit is NOT eliminated. A CCW permit is still required for carrying a concealed weapon into restaurants that serve alcohol, when traveling to states that recognize Arizona’s permit, and for streamlining firearms purchases.
The absence of a training mandate to carry concealed without a permit is a non-issue. Only 2% of Arizona's population has a CCW permit and no permit is required for the remaining 98% to carry "openly." Twelve states, all of which Arizona recognizes permits from, have no training requirements for obtaining a CCW permit. Two of those, Indiana and Pennsylvania, have issued close to 1,000,000 permits combined. There is no evidence that the minuscule misuse rate among permit holders with training is different than those who are not trained.
A practical purpose of having an armed citizenry is crime deterrence. Concealed carry has external, third-party benefits, in that criminals must assume that anyone they come across may be armed. Research has shown that liberalizing concealed carry laws increases the crime deterrence effect more than any other public policy method available. The current system of training, paper-work, background checks, etc., all at great cost to the law-abiding, serves to depress the population of armed citizens and reduce the crime deterrence effect. The larger the population of law abiding citizens that can carry concealed, the greater that deterrent effect.
UPDATE (April 16, 2010)
Governor Jan Brewer signed the bill into law.
OHH YEAH!
If you don’t have a permit, don’t start carrying concealed just yet. The law won’t become effective until 90 days after “Sine Die” when the Legislature officially adjourns. Since they are still working through a slew of bills, we don’t expect Sine Die anytime soon. In past years, the effective date of bills has been around September.
EDIT: Law is scheduled to go into effect July 29, 2010.
Last edited by west-phoenix-az (2010-04-30 12:02:49)
