After the MORE button: the official press release from the New Mexico Department of Public Safety re: the termination of The Land of Enchantment’s concealed carry reciprocity agreement with Utah. Let me save you some reading-between-the-lines time. Firearms trainers from Utah (and Florida) have fanned out across the country, offering concealed carry courses to non-residents (including states without reciprocity, like New York). At the end of the four-hour-ish instruction, the educators give qualified attendees the magic piece of paper: a Utah concealed carry permit. They’re then good to stow in 17—sorry, 16—states: Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont and Wyoming. What’s wrong with that? As far as I’m concerned, nothing. But Utah’s freelancers are taking food off the table of firearms instructors in New Mexico, who argue that the roving Utah instructors’ standards are below New Mexico’s. Really? TTAG will call New Mexico DPS on Monday to ferret out their exact justification. Much merriment is sure to ensue.
