INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Several police organizations are arguing against a proposal that would have Indiana join a dozen other states that don’t require a license to carry a handgun in public.
A legislative committee met Tuesday to begin reviewing the proposal that has failed the last two years in the Republican-dominated Legislature.
Law enforcement officials told the panel that the current law allows Indiana State Police to vet people who want to carry a gun. State police Maj. Mike White says about 3,000 people a year are denied permits because of criminal history or mental health issues.
Republican state Rep. Jim Lucas of Seymour is pushing for repealing the gun permit law, saying that law-abiding people shouldn’t have to get state permission to carry out their constitutional right to bear arms.
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Republican state Rep. Jim Lucas of Seymour said “law-abiding people shouldn’t have to get state permission to carry out their constitutional right to bear arms”. LOL! We don’t have any constitutional rights. Obama took care of that! By the way…It is illegal for the Federal government to tax your income but we all know they will put you in prison if you don’t pay! No other debtor can do that. Just our government of the people, for the people and by the people can and do imprison people that don’t pay up.
I watched their testimony, they oppose all change and any reduction in possible revenues they generate by selling these licenses. They violate their oath of office with their position. It is currently being used to put otherwise law abiding citizens in jail for violation of an unconstitutional state law.
Article 1, Section 32 of the IN Constitution: The people shall have a right to bear arms, for the defense of themselves and the State.
It was also evident during the questioning that many of these folks (looking at you Maj White) don’t even know what the law is evidencing confusion over the right of felons to possess firearms.
Guy Relford testified afterwards and said that he has represented 100’s of clients who were denied a permit with a 100% success rate; so I have to wonder how many of those thousands of denials were valid and how many stood just because the citizen couldn’t afford the time and money to litigate it.
It was also pointed out that criminals don’t apply for permits or acquire weapons legally. This is a requirement that only impacts the law abiding turning some of them into criminals if they try to defend themselves.