In 2024, South Carolina became the 29th state to implement Constitutional Carry, permitting citizens legally allowed to possess firearms to carry a concealed handgun without paying a fee or obtaining a license and without fear of being arrested or prosecuted for doing so. If we are being honest, instituting Constitutional Carry is more of a reaffirmation of that state’s commitment to the country and its citizens while giving them back a right that should have never been taken away in the first place. Don’t get me wrong. I support every state that no longer requires a license or collects a fee for Americans to exercise inalienable rights, but let’s call it what it is. Naturally, applications for permits and renewals have declined significantly, as they should, but leave it to the whiny, anti-Second Amendment Bloomberg-founded skinny jeans-wearing, pinko betas at Everytown for Gun Safety to cry about simple math.
What are the benefits of applying and paying for a concealed carry permit when one isn’t needed to exercise that right in your state? You might think there is zero reason, but traditionally, that has not been the case. One benefit has been permit reciprocity in other states. Another, depending on which state you live in, recognizes the vetting process behind the permit and allows you to purchase firearms without undergoing a NICS background check, eliminating possible hassles and delays associated with the easily overwhelmed .gov system.
With 29 Constitutional Carry states as of 2024 and not all of those states recognizing the permit’s vetting process as a reason to skip your next NICS check, there is less incentive to ask permission or pay for your rights. Not only is this a good thing for law-abiding Americans, but it could be a tool to chip away, as does the left, but in the opposite direction. As the right to bear arms is a natural law codified in the United States Constitution, you must provide some logical incentive to seek a permit, like skipping the NFA process and allowing the purchase of suppressors, SBRs, SBSs, and machine guns as one would purchase any firearm. Whatever the incentive there must be one, otherwise crying about application numbers is like complaining that I won’t pay for rental insurance at the counter when my personal insurance company already covers it.
Let me add a quick note on the permit reciprocity argument. Do yourself a favor and pull up a Constitutional Carry and a reciprocity map side by side. Now look at the states that offer unrestricted reciprocity vs those that have Constitutional Carry and you’ll get a good laugh as the pattern emerges. Thank me later.
In Nebraska (passed in 2023), during the first 11 months of 2024, the state received less than half the number of applications compared to the same period a year before, with 1,690 people asking for permission vs. 4,002, and four times lower than the 6,939 applications in 2022, according to State Patrol administering the program. These numbers do not include the approximately 5,000 permit holders who allowed their permits to expire.
“Make no mistake: Communities suffer when states go ‘permit-less.’ Permits increase safety by requiring applicants to complete safety training, a criminal background check and other steps such as live-fire instruction.” says Sarah Burd-Sharps, senior director of research at Everytown.
No, Sarah, you’re just too stupid to see the logical fallacies in your argument. Individuals who typically apply for a permit seek to abide by the law even when it violates their Constitutional rights. I’d call that a pretty big commitment to law-abiding behavior, even when the government doesn’t lead by example. In contrast, those who intend to cause harm to others usually don’t ask permission to bear the tools associated with carrying out their plans. Additionally, you assume that people who do not obtain permits also don’t go to the range, train, or take courses to become safe and proficient with their firearms. Stop lobbing me easy ones, you dolt. I can do this all day.
Nebraska Senator Tom Brewer sponsored the Constitutional Carry law in his home state and says he has seen no statistics showing an increase in gun safety issues since going “permit-less.”
I’m proud to live in a Constitutional Carry state, and I avoid states that aren’t like the plague. It wasn’t always this way for me, and it took effort and grit to leave a place only masquerading as part of America to make a better life for myself. Some of the sacrifices to get here still sting, but I wouldn’t go back for any amount of money, and I encourage others to consider doing the same when I hear of their ongoing struggles in places like California, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, and others. America did not come easy, nor without sacrifice, yet those who endeavored understood that freedom had to be the foundation on which the country stood and the hill which its protectors would be willing to die upon.
Don’t forget the elephant in the room: The GFSZA.
According to the ATF, anyone carrying a firearm, who is not “licensed to do so” by the state they are in (yes, the ATF has rejected reciprocity for the GFSZA), within ONE THOUSAND FEET of the boundary of any school property, are in violation of federal law!
There is no exception for constitutional carry states, meaning there are now MILLIONS of federal felons, just waiting for that hammer to drop for any reason the government may choose.
The Metcalf case out of Montana is our best hope so far to overturn the GFSZA. One way or another, this most heinous law in Federal code needs to go!
The ghost of Janet Reno walks amongst us and it hungers mightily.
That said, I doubt DOJ or anyone else would bother to prosecute such a case unless it was a sweetener for something else.
Historically, they certainly don’t and we can be fairly sure of that since we don’t hear gun rights orgs screaming about it from the hilltops.
Or the “offender” is a Republican” (as all the Jan6 BS).
A Reciprocity case really needs to happen. The progs dont have a leg to stand on.
See the guy who carried a single shot shotgun on his property, which was across the street from a school. He is being persecuted.
You’re not quite right. I share a property line with a school here in MS. I also shoot on my property (30 acres), and carry daily. Been doing so for 25 years here. I’ve never bothered to get a carry permit in my entire 80’s years on this rock. I’ve never been hassled by the school or the deputy that lives next door (‘next door’ is 500 yds away). There are indeed exceptions to the GFSZA. Look it up. 🙂
“You’re not quite right.”
Well, no, I am right, I just didn’t address the entire law. Just as having a license to possess a firearm issued by the state you are in is one exception, yes, another is to be on private property.
“on private property not part of school grounds;”
This article is about the fact that licenses to carry are becoming less common, so I addressed that part of the law as it is the only one that pertains to the subject matter at hand.
There are five additional exceptions, maybe you want to tell us about those too, even though they also have nothing to do with the article!? 😀
If SCOTUS would stop puntng the issue of arms laws & regulations vs. the 2A back to the lower courts and/or the Legislature, we might see some progress. As it is they selectively take minor cases that drag out forever. That might be welcomed by the legal community for financial reasons, but not by anyone else. Is the Judiciary and Equal but Separate branch of Government or not? Man up SCOTUS, and use the authority We The People handed to you.
It doesn’t matter what SCOTUS does or doesn’t do because Anti 2A liberal progressive democrats simply ignore any and all rulings passed down by every court, not just the Supreme Court that don’t support the ideology, policies and agendas and they will continue to do so until ‘We the People’ hold them accountable by all means necessary. We are now less than 4 months from the 250th anniversary of the battles that started our nation on it’s path to freedom from just this kind of tyranny. Thousands of brave men and women laid down everything they had including their lives for something they weren’t even sure they would attain. Freedom from government tyranny, but they knew it was worth the effort to try even if it meant dying. Much has changed in those 250 years. A nation was born, a war was fought to keep it together, multiple wars were fought to destroy world-wide tyranny. The one thing that hasn’t changed is the allowance of tyranny within our own nation. It still exists and is still tolerated. The question why? What has changed between then and now? Courage? Desire? Resolve? Or has it become easier to complain than act? Each must look deep within themselves to answer those questions. Because waiting on a system that the enemy isn’t afraid of, has no respect for and will ignore at every opportunity will eventually lead to less freedom and more tyranny.
Yeah, but, that was then. We don’t have a tryannical government, and government in America does not have any DNA upon which to build a tyranny. Thus, there is no reason to believe government wants to “rule over” the populace in the way a king, or dictator would do.
After nearly 250yrs of peaceful governance, what would cause tyranny to suddenly pop up. All Americans just want the same things, in the end; we have different ideas on the details of arriving at the goal.
Why can’t we all just get along? The good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the one.
2A STRIKES BACK: DOJ & ATF HAMMERED BY GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA.
The ATF/DOJ is trying to stop the Gun Owners of America from receiving their attorneys fees from their successful attack on the unconstitutional bump stock rule. GOA is fighting back and Mark Smith Four Boxes Diner discusses.
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5JLxpF2PDA
No shit !!
A: It isn’t even their money that would be paid out.
B: They never worry otherwise about the piles of dough that they burn through, especially when it comes to equipping themselves like some newly appointed superpower strike force.
“I’m proud to live in a Constitutional Carry state, and I avoid states that aren’t like the plague. It wasn’t always this way for me, and it took effort and grit to leave a place only masquerading as part of America to make a better life for myself.”
I certainly hope this was written with the author’s tongue in his/her/ze/zir cheek, though I rather doubt that it was.
Effort and grit? Please, spare us the hyperbolic paralogism. Moving from one state to another is not a crucifixion, nor is it some version of the Hero’s Journey. In extreme cases it may, perhaps, qualify as a moderate PITA.
Moderate pita for 2nd amendment bit more for medical liberty/privacy but great place to study the system for weaknesses and fundraise and direct challenges for both. The trick is to avoid migrant resettlements and various rebrandings of section 8 housing while minimizing tax/fee burdens.
If you’re living urban or suburban at this point, you already fucked up hard.
The historic base of the Right for the past 4000 years is rural. Forgetting this will be the downfall of Conservatism because, simply put, it cannot surviving the diluting effects of the suburbs or a city unless it’s concentrated enough to be the dominant force in that area.
If you want to take things back, a safe base of operations is required and you simply won’t find that in more densely populated areas at this time.
Like it or not, the Right isn’t ready for open political warfare because they are not yet strong enough. For now the Right’s capacity is limited to “cruising” in the old nautical sense, which means small raids on costal areas, limited engagements using the lee-gage to escape and harassment of hostile lines of communication, hopefully to the point of severing them.
Great Article, so thanks for your valued input on the subject/issue.
Just my two cents: I don’t think you help your sound argument by calling people names. In fact I would call it detrimental. I get the frustration.
Calling her a Dolt and Stupid doesn’t help your case and takes away from valid points you are no doubt making in your article and lends itself to being unprofessional.
However, I get the freedom of speech issue too. Thanks
But she is a dolt and stupid.