OUT OF STATE GUN LICENSE FREEDOM

OUT OF STATE GUN LICENSE FREEDOM

MSNBC
Utah, Florida help non-residents pack guns
Why two states’ licenses are such hot tickets
for the concealed-carry crowd

The one-third or so of American adults who can’t obtain licenses
to carry concealed weapons from their home states need only
look to Florida and Utah " and their mailboxes " to legally carry hidden guns.

Because both states grant concealed-carry licenses to non-residents
and have reciprocal agreements with other states under which
their licenses are recognized, possession of a Utah or Florida license
gives non-residents the right to carry hidden firearms in as many as
32 other states " though often not the one in which they live.

Tens of thousands of gun owners have obtained the non-resident licenses,
and their numbers are surging.

That has helped fuel the larger debate over concealed-carry licenses.
Gun-rights activists say Americans who pack heat to defend themselves
are exercising a legitimate right and have helped reduce the
nation’s crime rate. Gun-control advocates say that there’s no proof
that gun-toting civilians make the streets any safer and that looser
concealed-carry laws are a recipe for disaster.

As the debate continues, the Utah and Florida licenses are becoming
ever-hotter tickets for out-of-state gun owners. “Protect your family
when traveling!” shouts a headline on one of dozens of Web sites
that offer training and help with the paperwork to obtain the
Utah and Florida licenses. “You don’t have to be a resident of Utah or Florida!”

The non-resident licenses are roundly criticized by gun-control
advocates, who see the states that issue them as tools of groups
like the National Rifle Association.

I think the reason states are doing this, especially Florida, is the
sheer power of the gun lobby in those state legislatures,” said
Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center,
which seeks a ban on private ownership of all handguns. “It’s not
a question of what is in a state’s interest, but what is in the gun
lobby and gun industry’s interest.”



But NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam called non-resident licenses
an “organic” solution to needlessly restrictive state gun laws.

“There are people in all these states that are trying to get right-to-carry licenses
and are not able to,” he said. “As a result, they’re forced to explore
other avenues. The solution to that would be for as many states
as possible to have a ‘shall-issue’ license system,” which allows
most adults to obtain concealed-carry licenses on demand.

Big increases in two states
The popularity of non-resident licenses with gun owners from heavily
populated states like California and New York, which do not
have “shall-issue” systems, has helped fuel big increases in both
Utah and Florida’s concealed-carry license numbers. That in turn
has contributed to the nation’s fivefold increase in concealed-weapons
licenses, from fewer than 1 million in the 1980s to an estimated 6 million today.

In Florida, the number of new and renewal applicants for concealed-carry
licenses from out of state increased 529 percent " from 2,703 to
17,003 " from 1999 to 2009, compared with a 145 percent increase
in applications from residents of the Sunshine State over the same period.

Florida is on a pace to grant new and renewed licenses to about 25,000
out-of-state residents in the current fiscal year. Of 692,621 current
Florida concealed-carry license holders, 71,059, or more than one in 10,
are not state residents. Over the past 10 years, the number of
concealed-carry licenses issued by Utah has surged 431 percent,
from 40,363 to 214,403, a figure that would represent nearly 8 percent
of the state’s population, but more than half the licenses now go to
non-Utah residents, up from just 12 percent a decade ago. Of the
1,011 instructors authorized by Utah to teach its concealed-carry
license class, 641 live out of state " 100 in California alone "
while 370 are Utah residents.

Both states require applicants to undergo background checks and
submit to fingerprinting. Florida requires proof of firearms training
that can be satisfied in a number of ways; Utah requires applicants
to take a four-hour class on gun-safety and legal issues taught by a
state-certified instructor. The Florida license costs $117 and is good
for seven years.

Utah charges $65.25 for a five-year license.




The time and expense are well worth it to gun owners who want
to pack their pistols in as many places as they legally can.
Non-resident Florida licenses are good in 30 other states and non-resident
Utah licenses are honored in 29 other states. The reciprocating states
largely overlap, but there are a few differences. By obtaining both,
for example, a resident of Illinois, which does not grant concealed-gun
licenses to civilians, could legally carry in 32 states outside of his
or her own, including the neighboring states of Missouri, Indiana and Kentucky.

Gun-rights activists say states that unnecessarily restrict
concealed-carry gave rise to the practice of licensing non-residents.

“It’s not Utah that has made the license so valuable,” said W. Clark Aposhian,
chairman of the state’s Concealed Weapons Review Board.
“It’s other states that have made it so valuable” but the license’s surge
in popularity with out-of-state gun owners has given pause to Utah
Gov. Gary Herbert, who last September expressed fears that his
state could become known as a “wholesale clearinghouse” for
concealed-carry licenses.

Aposhian, a firearms instructor who has taught firearms classes to Herbert
and dozens of members of the Utah Legislature and helped them obtain
concealed-carry licenses, said Utah had some issues with “rogue
instructors” in other states who were more interested in making money
from the process than in providing good instruction, but he said
that those issues have since been resolved and that he doesn’t
expect any changes to Utah’s policy on non-resident licenses.

As to why Utah appears almost eager to help non-residents get
concealed-weapons licenses, Aposhian said, “I’d look at it from another way.
We don’t just deny a license based on a subjective line in the dirt
where a border is. If you fit the requirements to possess a firearm legally
and pass a background check on that, you’re entitled to the license.”

When it comes to background checks, he said, “I’ll put Utah’s
process up against any other state’s.” He said residents with
concealed-carry licenses are checked for run-ins with the law on
a daily basis. Out-of-state license holders are checked quarterly,
Aposhian said, but he expects the state to implement a daily
check within 18 months.
“If we find out you’ve been convicted of drunken driving or a felony,
we ask you to immediately send your license in.”

Last year, Utah revoked 409 concealed-carry licenses, less than 0.2 percent
of the total. More than half the revocations were for license holders
who had alcohol-related issues or a protective order lodged against them.
Utah does not report how many revoked licenses were held by non-residents.

Florida, meanwhile, revoked 643 concealed-carry licenses in 2009,
less than 0.1 percent of its total. Only 11 of those were held by non-residents.
Gun-rights activists say the low revocation rates are evidence
that the licenses are overwhelmingly given to solid, law-abiding citizens.
Aposhian said if there was any evidence of a problem with Utah’s
non-resident system, it would be fixed. “We have a very intelligent
legislature regarding guns,” he said, but gun-control advocates say
it’s likely that non-resident license holders aren’t checked as
thoroughly or as often as they should be.

Gun-control group: 'Bad policy'
“We think that states issuing (licenses) to non-residents is bad
policy,” Rand said. “It’s a way for people to get (licenses)
despite not being able to qualify in their own state, sometimes
because of a criminal history.” For instance, some states
count only criminal convictions against an applicant, while others
may take arrest records into account.
She pointed to a current situation in Philadelphia, where
authorities are fuming because residents who have been denied licenses
or had them revoked in Pennsylvania have been able to obtain
Florida concealed-carry licenses that Philadelphia police are
required to honor under reciprocity agreements.

The “Florida loophole,” touted at Pennsylvania gun shows by firearms trainers,
exists because Florida has a lower bar for denying and revoking
licenses than Pennsylvania. Florida does not check to see if non-resident
applicants have been denied licenses by their home states,
according to the Florida Department of Agriculture, which issues
the concealed-carry licenses.

The loophole is "a sick trick of the gun dealers in gun shows to circumvent
the laws of Pennsylvania," Philadelphia Police Lt. Lisa King, who
oversees concealed-carry licenses for the city, told the Philadelphia
Daily News last month. Some lawmakers have vowed to close it,
but Aposhian, the Utah firearms trainer who also lobbies lawmakers
on gun issues, said there’s no evidence that the soaring number of
concealed weapons being legally carried across the nation causes
problems, regardless of how licenses are obtained. In fact, even
though it would cost him business, he would like to see Utah and
other states allow concealed-carry with no licenses required.

“It seems to work in Vermont and it seems to work in Alaska,” he said,
pointing to two states where firearms homicide rates are lower than the national average.
“We don’t have a pattern of problems.
It is probably time to start it in more populous states and see how that goes”
but gun-control groups are vehemently opposed to abandoning the license system.

“The gun rights folks really are trying to push the envelope even further
all the time,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign
to end Handgun Violence, which advocates rescinding all “shall issue”
concealed-carry laws and letting police decide who should get a
license to pack heat.

[Emfasis was added by David.]