Republican lawmakers have revived a proposal to repeal Indiana’s handgun permit requirement that has drawn strong objections from major police organizations.
The proposal was sidelined, last week, by Republican Senate leaders after a Senate committee approved an amendment that supporters complained gutted the bill.
That action came after State Police Superintendent Doug Carter told committee members that if lawmakers “support the bill, they don’t support police.
Republicans on a House-Senate conference committee, Wednesday, inserted the permit repeal provisions into an unrelated bill.
The provisions 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.
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This story may not be accurate. I’m petty sure one has to be 21-years or older to legally buy a handgun. So does the bill actually let 18-year olds carry legally when they cannot buy until age 21? If you look around just a little bit, you will see many stories of 18-year olds and younger carrying and using handguns ILLEGALLY already. How do the police “organizations” plan to stop that illegal activity when they are not doing so now? It seems their plan is to take guaranteed civil rights from the law-abiding and do nothing about young criminals. Circular logic never works especially with police union organizers. The rank and file are for this bill not against it. OF course the AP reporting doesn’t want you to know many officers testified for the bill.
In this case the “police” are just another government agency that sees a possible cut in funding. I’m not a fan of unfund the police but I am a fan of being allowed to have our constitutional rights allowed without prior approval.
This bill will not allow already prohibited persons to legally carry a weapon…but criminals don’t care about laws and will continue to illegally carry weapons; this only changes making a criminal out of a law abiding citizen who wants to exercise their right to self defense.