Wyoming takes step forward for the Second Amendment
Yesterday, Governor Matt Mead signed a bill acknowledging that law-abiding citizens can carry a concealed gun without a permit.
“The law allows state citizens legally entitled to own guns to carry them concealed starting in July.”
Of course, the anti-rights lobby had to change their diapers afterwards. Brady Campaign president Paul Helmke said: “The gun lobby is trying to push more guns into more places.”
David Kopel has an excellent report on gun control’s racist roots. Anti-concealed carry laws were an attempt to punish freed Blacks for carrying any kind of weapon, while enforcement against white offenders was minimal.
Way to go, Paul “Jim Crow” Helmke.
God Bless Wyoming. Now I can start carrying. Previously we could open carry without a permit, but I have avoided getting a CC permit because I didn’t want the government knowing that I have a gun.
I remember hearing about Australia registering guns just so they know who has them, then they outlawed them and knew where to go to gather them up.
So I only buy guns from private sellers (no background checks) and thanks to my state government I can now carry concealed.
the cc permit allows the person the carry in multiple states, not just wyo. you dont have to tell the govt. everything you have. this bill could change if enough pressure is applied to the right areas. the cc is the only way to go, in my opinion.
Nice. Colorado could be next.
Paperwork, fingerprints, photographs, fees, and background checks to allow people to carry a side-arm? What kind of nonsense is this?
The right of self-defense is a corollary to the right to life; to deny one is to deny the other. The purpose of government is to insure our rights, not to infringe on them.
The fact is that governments should not be involved in permitting the carriage of weapons, either openly or concealed, by anyone.
Our constitution states that the right of the people to keep (possess) and bear (carry) arms shall not be infringed. Marbury v. Madison (1803) decided that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and that any law that contradicts the Constitution is null and void. “The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having the form and the name of law, is in reality no law, but is wholly void and ineffective for any purpose since unconstitutionality dates from the time of its enactment and not merely from the date of the decision so branding it; an unconstitutional law, in legal contemplation, is as inoperative as if it had never been passed … An unconstitutional law is void.” (16 American Jurisprudence 2d, Sec. 178)
The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the high powers” delegated directly to the citizen, and `is excepted out of the general powers of government.’ A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the lawmaking power.” [Cockrum v. State, 24 Tex. 394, at 401-402 (1859)]
In Murdock v. Pennsylvania (1943) the Supreme Court stated that a constitutionally-protected right may not be licensed, nor a fee charged.
In Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham, Alabama (1962) the Supreme Court decided that “If the state does attempt to convert a liberty into a privilege, the citizen can engage in the right with impunity.” (That means they can’t punish you, folks!)
To paraphrase an oft-quoted movie line, “Permits? We don’ need no steenking permits!”
Tel: 561.376.9945
Not to mention the inherent classist and racist implications of all the licensing requirements. Making it more expensive means only a person of means can get a license.
Congratulations!
Alaska welcomes our Wyoming friends to the Constitutional Carry club.
Liberty wins another victory.
Very cool. Let’s hear it for WyGo (Wyoming Gun Owners) and NAGR (National Association for Gun Rights). They were the groups on the ground making this happen.
One of the rare offensive “wins” for gun rights. Seems like it’s usually about stopping bad bills, not passing good ones.
At the time of the ratification of the Bill of Rights (Second
Amendment included) cancealed carry in intrastate and interstate travel was socially and by law perceived to be an indicator of criminal intent to commit a crime upon another, i.e., armed robbery or murder. Why would it be any different today?
The only thing a permissive concealed carry without a license law will do put law abiding citizens in the same category of felons who carry concealed unlawfully for the advancement of their criminal activity.
I law-abiding citizen ought to have the constitutional right, the legal right, and the right of social norms to openly carry in intrastate and interstate travel under the privileges and immunities clause of the Constitution itself and of the Fourteenth Amendment.
This trend favor unlicensed concealed carry is a delusion. It is an constitutional deception upon society. Any advocate supporting unlicensed concealed carry is an advocate of deceit. Yeah! You can ahave your Second Amendment right to carry jus carry your damn gun concealed to let society see you carry because you might scare them when they see your handgun if you carry it openly.
The unclicensed concealed carry law is based on the unconstitutional premise that open carry in intrastate and interstate travel is a bad thing. No one has a right not to be offended by the First Amendment right to free speech. So it is the same with the Second Amendment. No one has the right to impose their fear of firearms upon society through the state or federal legislative process. To do otherwise is the build a society based on fear and paranoia.
Best example today is Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Nepalitano’s “If you see something, say something.” The counter slogan is “If your fear something, you will see something.”
It was already in the news that someone saw a man sitting in his own car in a Walmart parking lot talking on his self-phone. The unreliable witness called police reporting a man with a gun attempting suicide. A Keystone cops fiasco for that innocent man with a cellphone nearly losing his law at gun point by the police.
Just how far do you want to take a society built on fear?
NATIONAL OPEN CARRY (in intrastate and interstate travel). Just one of the elements of the “full scope” of Second Amendmdent rights that U.S. Supreme Court refuses to address.
I am now drafting my Petition for Writ of Mandamus, Writ of Coram Nobis, and Writ of Coram Vobis directly to the U.S. Supreme Court under Rule 20.1 of the Rules of the U.S. Supreme Court. I am asking the Court Orders instructing the U.S. Supreme Court itself and the lower courts to stop blocking my Second Amendment cases (from 2002 to 2010) and to allow me to proceed to a civil jury trial because the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Department of State have, in 2009, vindicated the merits of my Second Amendment case for National Open Carry from a merchant seaman’s point of view.
MY BLOG: AMERICAN COMMON DEFENCE REVIEW
http://AmericanCommonDefenceReview.WordPress.com
Thats why you keep them concealed,… so people dont freak out when they see a man walking down the street. Another reason to have a concealed weapon is so the one commiting the crime doesnt see you have a gun and just come back later when your not around, somebody robs me at knife point im going to pull my gun out and call the cops and keep him there till they arrive, keeping him from robbing other people. if he knows i have a gun he will rob someone else. the police cant catch everybody, im sure they wouldnt mind some good honest folk helping them out every once in a while instead of being helplees scared sheep and handing over our wallets everytime some low life pulls out a knife.
OOPS! CORRECTED
This trend favoring unlicensed concealed carry is a delusion. It is an unconstitutional deception upon society. Any advocate supporting unlicensed concealed carry is an advocate for deceit. Yeah! You can have your Second Amendment right to carry just carry your damn gun concealed. Don’t let society see you carry because you might scare someone if you carry your gun openly.