Folks:
This just came to me, by E-mail.
Gary
"Arizona, which has single-handedly rocked the national dialog on the immigration debate, has done it again -- this time for guns.
On the same day that portions of Arizona's controversial immigration bill SB1070 took effect, July 29, 2010, the Grand Canyon state implemented its new Constitutional Carry law.
Under this groundbreaking new act (SB1108), any law-abiding adult in the state -- not just residents -- can carry a firearm discreetly without a government permit or red tape.
Arizonans have been free to carry firearms in a visible holster, without government approval, since statehood in 1912. "Discreet carry" advances personal freedom, though critics fear the increase in rights will lead to an increase in crime.
That deep-seated fear has accompanied every advance in the right to keep and bear arms -- from CCW-permit carry that swept the nation, to repeal of many so-called gun-free zones, such as the National Parks -- and has proven false every time.
"Laws that ban decent citizens from keeping or bearing arms are unconstitutional and an affront to basic human and civil rights," said State Senator Russell Pearce, a chief proponent of both the new discreet-carry law and SB1070. "Now that we have Freedom To Carry in Arizona, we expect crime to drop, just like it did when we passed the permission-slip carry law 16 years ago. Armed citizens put criminals at a disadvantage. Guns save lives."
Frightened cries of impending doom are muted this time around, say proponents of the new law, since previous claims of wild-west violence turned out to be myths. "We basically haven't heard much 'blood-in-the-streets' fear mongering," says Alan Korwin, the publisher at gun-law-book specialist Bloomfield Press and an architect of the new statewide gun-training program TrainMeAZ.com, "because all the previous claims were nothing more than paranoia. The history shows that."
This just came to me, by E-mail.
Gary
"Arizona, which has single-handedly rocked the national dialog on the immigration debate, has done it again -- this time for guns.
On the same day that portions of Arizona's controversial immigration bill SB1070 took effect, July 29, 2010, the Grand Canyon state implemented its new Constitutional Carry law.
Under this groundbreaking new act (SB1108), any law-abiding adult in the state -- not just residents -- can carry a firearm discreetly without a government permit or red tape.
Arizonans have been free to carry firearms in a visible holster, without government approval, since statehood in 1912. "Discreet carry" advances personal freedom, though critics fear the increase in rights will lead to an increase in crime.
That deep-seated fear has accompanied every advance in the right to keep and bear arms -- from CCW-permit carry that swept the nation, to repeal of many so-called gun-free zones, such as the National Parks -- and has proven false every time.
"Laws that ban decent citizens from keeping or bearing arms are unconstitutional and an affront to basic human and civil rights," said State Senator Russell Pearce, a chief proponent of both the new discreet-carry law and SB1070. "Now that we have Freedom To Carry in Arizona, we expect crime to drop, just like it did when we passed the permission-slip carry law 16 years ago. Armed citizens put criminals at a disadvantage. Guns save lives."
Frightened cries of impending doom are muted this time around, say proponents of the new law, since previous claims of wild-west violence turned out to be myths. "We basically haven't heard much 'blood-in-the-streets' fear mongering," says Alan Korwin, the publisher at gun-law-book specialist Bloomfield Press and an architect of the new statewide gun-training program TrainMeAZ.com, "because all the previous claims were nothing more than paranoia. The history shows that."