Arkansas: Constitutional Carry Law Strengthened & Passed Again, a Decade Later

AmmoLand ^ | April 24, 2023 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

In 2013, the Arkansas legislature passed, and a Democrat governor signed a bill that reformed Arkansas’s gun law.

That bill created the same conditions as had existed in Vermont for 90 years: Constitutional Carry.  In  2023, the Arkansas legislature passed an apparent and clear, in-your-face, straight-up Constitutional Carry bill, given the obvious success of the 2013 law.

In 2013, the AR legislature passed HB1700. Democrat Governor Mike Beebe immediately said he had no idea he was signing a Constitutional Carry bill.  Part of the reform, which went into effect on August 16, 2013, was a change in the definition of what was unlawful carrying of a weapon. The changes are underlined below:

(a) A person commits the offense of carrying a weapon if he or she possesses a handgun, knife, or club on or about his or her person, in a vehicle occupied by him or her, or otherwise readily available for use with a purpose to attempt to unlawfully employ the handgun, knife, or club as a weapon against a person.

The law in the United States defines what is not allowed. Anything which is not forbidden is allowed, unlike tyrannies, where only what is allowed is legal, and often, what is allowed is mandatory!

HB defined, as does Vermont law, that carrying a weapon is only illegal if the intent is to attempt to unlawfully use the weapon against another person. The defense of self and others has always been legal in the United States.

The Democrat Attorney General, McDaniel, issued an opinion the law did not mean what it said. This muddied the waters for a year and a half. In 2015, a Republican AG admitted the law meant what it said, and that is how it would be enforced.

[marktwain]

In 2013, the Democratic Governor, Mike Beebe, complained, saying he did not know the bill was Constitutional Carry when he signed it. In 2023, the passage of a strengthened and clarified Constitutional Carry bill was not controversial.

[mabarker1]

SWEET PING !!!

[dforest]

Arkansas has one of the finest Governors.

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[DCBryan1]

As an AR CHCL instructor, 2013 was weird. We had 75 counties, 14 of which, the County Proc/DA said, "We ain't havin' it"....and Rose Bud, AR cops arrested a farmer for open carry and went through AR courts.

They affirmed the anti-gun cops were wrong. Turns out the cops torched their OWN cars at their homes (fake hate crime) with pro-RKBA slogans. Simple evil. Bear false witness with fake hate crime IOT malign the RKBA and 2nd Amendment. They received the FUDD of the year award.

[DCBryan1]

Arkansas has one of the finest Governors.

Sarah wants to renegotiate world headquarters in Little Rock, but black democrats, anti gun mayor screwed that up. We have Sig, Remington, Wilson Arms, Norrell Arms, and other great gun manufacturers. Hope more come...Great place to be.

[Arkansas Toothpick]

Great place to be, indeed, IF we can keep the leftists out. Their roaming eyes see Arkansas a natural paradise, which it is in many ways, but that also means they will come and seek to control it for their leftist gain.

[MtnClimber]

The left is sure to destroy Arkansas. They destroyed Colorado and I had to leave for Florida, which is where I was born. But I loved Colorado and the mountain climbing there. I was a climbing instructor for the Colorado Mountain Club when I lived there. Terrible trend in gun laws.