Things are a bit more relaxed here in Georgia. Not a good thing IMHO.
Got money? Walk in and buy a gun. No permit, no registration, no training, no experience necessary. We have a great organization called Georgiacarry.org that works tirelessly to expand and defend 2A rights for Georgians, but I can’t get behind everything they want, nor the NRA for that matter.
Now anyone can hide gun under their seat, between the seats, anywhere in a vehicle, and it’s no longer a “concealed weapon”.
We don’t require proof of training or experience in any way. Many states mandate a safety/use course.
We don’t require registration of any kind. I’m on the fence typically, but If you have an extra charge on some clown who has an illegal/stolen/found gun, I’m all for it.
We have a bill in the legislature currently to allow 18-21 yo to obtain a CCW permit with current or prior military experience. Before it changed, it would allow all 18-21yo to be eligible if they take a class.
Training and knowledge are never a bad thing when it comes to guns…
That’s true, but those jurisdictions are all ones where normal people can’t get a concealed carry permit. I don’t know of any place where there’s seperate, but easily acquirable permits to own and permits to carry.
I plan to get a carry permit sometime. I don’t even own a handgun but it seems to be something cool to have.
Forgive me. Perhaps I’ve been in one too many gun threads and simply misinterpreted a “I shoot real good but can’t bring myself to carry” post to a thread that was specifically about completing a class required in order o have a carry permit. My fault entirely.
I’m surprised a person would be advised to carry a gun in a purse. If someone snatches it when you’re not expecting or you let it out of your sight for just a second and it gets stolen, that’s one more gun in the hands of a criminal.
The original statement was “very few places require a permit simply to own a gun”. That’s all I was refuting.
And normal people absolutely can get a concealed carry permit in Massachusetts. It all depends on what town you live in. Some chiefs will give one to anyone who applies (and meets all the other legal requirements).
If keeping the gun away from kids, visitors, etc. is necessary you should get a gun vault with quick-open combination buttons. I have one and I’ve made sure I can find the buttons and push the combination by feel in the dark. Cable locks and keeping the gun unloaded should be only for firearms you don’t intend to have available in an emergency. Modern firearms are safe to keep a round chambered; if you need a gun you may need it fast.
The one with the buttons took the longest to open. She fumbled around with the buttons so many times (and he programmed in “1,2,3,4” and showed us several times throughout the class how easy it was to open) that it locked her out*. But again, this wasn’t to say that you shouldn’t keep your gun locked, but rather that you should keep it locked and then lay in your bed and practice unlocking it in the dark.
*To make the exercise more difficult, they dimmed the lights in the room and banged on the tables and yelled to make it more stressful. But during a home invasion, stress would certainly be part of it.
Just the Wife and I in the house.
Left hand touches the Wife to be sure she hasn’t taken the dogs out and forgoten her keys and had to break the door down to get back in, right hand gets the pistol out of the nightstand.
Went by the State Police Hq and got my fingerprints done. Then turned in my application with payment.
Our class instructor did a few students fingerprints at the class. But, he recommended letting the State Police do it. He mentioned they sometimes reject fingerprints if they are smudged on the card. If the State Police do it themselves, then they aren’t likely to make that excuse.
We even used class time so the instructor could guide us through filling out all the paperwork. Any mistake means a reject. The cops have no incentive to make this easy.
I was talking with an old timer and he mentioned the old law was you could carry a gun within your area of personal business. Often 25 miles from your home was the benchmark. But it had to be in an area of town that you normally did business (shopping, banking, etc.).
Conceal Carry takes a lot of the guess work out of it. All the rules are clearly spelled out.
Also note that in Illinois there IS NO CCH. Nowhere in the state.
Being that I’m in the lovely city of Chicago, it gets even more ridiculous! To OWN a handgun in the city of Chicago (thanks Supreme Court!), you need to have the following: a Illinois State FOID (Firearm Ownership ID card), a general Chicago firearms permit (5 hour class - 4hrs classroom/1hr range - also $100 every 3 years to renew), and another hand-gun permit. You also must register all of your weapons for another fee. Oh, and the statute is so limited, you can’t even carry your handgun from your house to your detached garage! Which is typically only about 10 feet in the city. How one is supposed to get comfortable with firing their own gun in such a situation, I don’t know. Hopefully you can rent the same model you own…
If I’m going to carry a handgun for self defense, I need to become proficient with it, obviously. I can’t afford to become proficient with a .45. (Well, I suppose I *can *afford it, but I really don’t want to shell out those kind of bucks.) Which means I shouldn’t carry a .45. By contrast, I *can *afford to become proficient with a 9 mm, hence the reason I carry a 9 mm.
