Replies

Arizona has always allowed open carry. Concealed carry was legal through early statehood. During the State Constitutional debates, the right to bear arms in defense of self and the state was enshrined into the Constitution. The delegates debated if the legislature should be given the power to regulate concealed carry. That was voted down at least twice.

Then, during the first legislative session, it was concealed carry in certain circumstances, was made illegal by the legislature!

This was finally challenged in the 1980’s, when Bob Corbin, a former state attorney general had done the research showing that the constitutional convention had specifically *refused* to give the legislature the power to regulate concealed carry.

The appeals court ruled against concealed carry, and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

Since then, we have had some appeals court rulings (mostly by the same anti-gun judge, to muddy the waters on what is legal open carry.

We have been fighting back in the legislature, have improved the shall issue law we passed in 1994, and are working to pass Alaska style constitutional carry this year. One of the few good things about the Obama election is that our governor Janet Napolitano, was selected for the Homeland Security cabinet seat. This leaves Jan Brewer, a good conservative, in the governors seat, so we hope to get some legislation passed that was vetoed by Napolitano.

Unfortunately, Janet left Arizona deeply in debt. The state is not in quite as bad a mess as California, but I am sure that Janet was glad of the cabinet appointment so she could flee all the red ink she created in Arizona.

The budget is taking up most of the legislator's time, so I don't know what we will be able to pass this year.

Thanks for the update on Arizona, which has been my favorite state since I began visiting my parents there in the mid-’70s. At that time, open carry was legal and common - more so in rural areas, of course, where you were less likely to find yankee busy-bodies.

I knew you now had concealed carry, but didn’t know that open carry is still possible.
Here in Texas, concealed carry wasn’t passed until Gov. Bush replaced Dimocrat Ann “Ma” Richards, and even now the requirements to get the license are onerous compared to most other shall-issue states.