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Indiana Senate could change stance on handgun carry permits

(Source: https://goo.gl/tnLg5z License: https://goo.gl/D8TZ34)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A top Indiana legislator says a proposal to repeal the state’s handgun permit requirement might win approval despite ongoing opposition from major law enforcement organizations and the state police superintendent.

Republican Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray said he expected a Senate committee in the coming week to advance the bill loosening Indiana’s already lenient firearms restrictions that the GOP-dominated House approved last month.

The bill would allow anyone age 18 or older to carry a handgun in public except for reasons such as having a felony conviction, facing a restraining order from a court or having a dangerous mental illness. Supporters argue the permit requirement undermines Second Amendment protections by forcing law-abiding citizens to undergo police background checks.

The Senate didn’t take action last year on a similar bill that the House approved, citing the concerns raised by Indiana State Police, the state police chiefs association and the Indiana Fraternal Order of Police. Those groups have said they worried that eliminating the permit system would strip police of a screening tool for identifying dangerous people who shouldn’t have a gun and making that information quickly accessible to officers.

Indiana requires people to obtain a license to carry a loaded handgun outside their own homes, businesses, or cars, although people can generally carry rifles and shotguns without a permit. Twenty-one other states allow residents to carry handguns without permits, which gun rights advocates call “constitutional carry.”

Bray said senators were trying to balance Second Amendment rights with the concerns from police.

“As you look around other states that have done the same thing, there haven’t been a lot of other problems, at least that we have seen, that have cropped up as a result of this policy and so we’re trying to cautiously move forward with it,” Bray said.

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3 comments

Pat February 20, 2022 at 10:50 am

people who can’t pass a “background check” are going to get guns anyway, if they really want them — permits just make it harder for the law-abiding to protect themselves, especially against out-of-control government tyrants

pass constitutional carry, now

Reply
Slacker06 February 21, 2022 at 8:56 am

The complaints by the police are bogus. CRIMINALS are already carrying firearms without permits. Police already have to face the questions of who has a firearm on them. They have nothing to fear from the law-abiding now or in the future. Everyone, including criminals and the law-abiding are innocent until proven guilty. The gun banners continuously try to conflate the law-abiding citizen with criminals because they believe ALL gun-owners are criminals or certainly potential criminals. Just because these impaired individuals know they cannot be trusted with guns they want all people to be restricted from their right to self defense. Ironically, these same people want the police defended. Who will stop criminals once the citizen is disarmed and the police are defended???????

Reply
Easy one February 22, 2022 at 7:26 am

This should be an easy change for law enforcement. They would need to assume that everyone they pull over has a firearm. If they apply that rule to every engaugement, and modify their procedures around firearms, it will greatly reduce the number of times they are surprised by someone with a firearm.

Reply

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