Posted on 04/24/2013 6:44:19 PM PDT by marktwain
On 4 April, 2013, Arkansas HB1700 became ACT 746. The revised law will not go into effect until late July or early August of this year.
The bill makes a definition change in the statute that has been interpreted to limit the legal carrying of weapons in Arkansas.
The original language was this:
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 employ the handgun, knife, or club as a weapon against a person.
The new language is this. Bold added to make the change stand out:
SECTION 2.
5-73-120.
Carrying a weapon.
(a) Arkansas Code § 5-73-120 is amended to read as follows: 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.
This change clarifies the meaning of the law to what was likely the original intent; that a person may not carry a weapon with the intent of using it for unlawful purposes. There does not appear to be other Arkansas law that forbids the carrying of weapons (except in certain named locations). Therefore it appears that Arkansas will have Constitutional carry.
The law also clarifies the meaning of "journey". The previous law made an exception for the carry of weapons during a journey. Journey is now clarified to mean travel that crosses a county boundary. Arkansas has many counties of roughly the same size , about 25 to 30 miles on a side. This means that a great deal of travel will fall into the legal category of a journey. In addition the law exempts carry on your own property or property that you have an interest in.
The law is available in PDF format Here
Map showing Arkansas Counties
There may be legal challanges before the law is accepted by all legal entities in Arkansas.
Sorry that the link goes to a preview page instead of the article.
Here is the real link to the article:
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2013/04/arconstitutional-carry-will-be-law-in.html
Can you clarify what the “percent change” is represented by the map?
Yes, the map is a graphic to show the shape of the counties. The percent change is in population.
That’s wonderful news!
Great news. Believe it or not, if AR is the fifth state for constitutional carry, IL may be the sixth. The IL legislature has yet to come up with a concealed carry bill that is acceptable enough to be passed by the court imposed deadline of June. No bill = constitutional carry. How ironic.
1. Prior history: Are they a prohibited possessor?
2. Did they commit a crime with the weapon? They could be prosecuted after the fact.
3. Ask them. People are amazed at the number of times criminals admit that they were planning to commit a crime.
If carrying for lawful purposes becomes lawful without a permit, of what possible use would a relaxed “journey” definition be?
Sounds good to me! In the past if you were stopped for anything and they found a pocketknife on you they would run a check of your records. If nothing came up you were sent on your way.
If they found something like drugs, a warrent or booze they would also arrest you for “carrying a prohibited weapon.”
“If carrying for lawful purposes becomes lawful without a permit, of what possible use would a relaxed “journey” definition be?”
Double protection? We already have the Second Amendment, but we have to jump through hoops to exercise it. It almost seems that lawmakers are having to make law more and more explicit in an attempt to prevent judges from finding ways to interpret the law to get the outcome that they wish.
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