Constitutional Carry Bill Continues to Progress in Arizona!

Please Contact Your State Representative! 

House Bill 2347 currently is awaiting action in the House Committee of the Whole (COW) before it is taken up on the house floor for a Third and final reading.  This could happen at any time so it is imperative that you continue to contact your State Representative.

Currently under Arizona law it is generally legal to carry a firearm openly as long as you are 18 years of age and not prohibited from possessing a firearm.  However, if the firearm becomes covered, say with a coat, or if you are a woman and prefer to carry your firearm in your purse, you need to possess a concealed carry permit. While it may seem simple for the average male to open carry, we shall not discriminate against women and those who are unable to conventionally carry a firearm.  The intent of this legislation is to give people the greatest possible freedom to choose the best method of carry for them, based on attire, sex, and or physical attributes.    

Back in 1994, when the original Right-to-Carry bill passed, opponents made outrageous claims that there would be shootouts in the streets, and that the murder rate would skyrocket.  Opponents to the original Right-to-Carry bill, such as a large number of law enforcement groups, can now freely admit that none of these radical predictions have come true.

In his book More Guns, Less Crime, John Lott demonstrates statistically that as training requirements are relaxed, more crimes are deterred as more people carry firearms for self-defense.  In fact many states – from Georgia, to Indiana, to Washington - have issued permits for decades with no training requirement at all.  In Arizona, 16 years after the passage of its original concealed carry law, the murder rate has gone down as the carry rate has gone up.  Today, nearly all law enforcement organizations are neutral on HB 2347.

Under Arizona’s current constitution, Article 2, Section 26 clearly states that “The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself or the state shall not be impaired…”  The intention here could not be more clear.

Please continue to respectfully urge your state legislators to support the amended version of House Bill 2347.  Contact information can be found by clicking here.