Concealed Carry Permits?

Texas passed a law allowing campus carry, but only private schools can opt out of it. You have to have a concealed handgun license, which requires a 4 or 5-hour course. It used to be a 10-hour course, and I though it was stupid of them to shorten it. I had people in my class who knew nothing about guns and needed to spend several hours in the classroom before going to the shooting range. Other than that, other states have had campus carry for years without any major problems.

 

My criticisms weren't intended to be limited to this change they were more a commentary on the state of carrying concealed weapons.

You can be shot by a do-gooder with a gun on a campus, or on a bus or at the pool with your friend Russ.

A course in safe weapon handling, to me, should be the minimum requirement. Kudos to Texas for having a requirement. When I got my carry permit in PA there was no course. I went to the Sheriff's office on my lunch break. I sat down in the chair with the photo backdrop behind it while a deputy checked the information I provided against the state police registry then he took my picture and handed me my permit.

But safe handling also doesn't ensure that you are trained to respond appropriately in an emergency situation. And we've seen quite a few bone headed moves by "good samaritans" recently that make me worry that I could get killed by a well intentioned bullet.

On a slightly different note, I don't advocate any sort of "gun control," at least as its imagined by most anti-gun folks, but I think a sensible step to ridding people of the notion that a concealed carry permit bestows any sort of law enforcement authority would be for the remaining states to ban Concealed Carry Permit badges.

 

Appeals court rules - there is no "right" to concealed carry

9th Circuit Court of Appeals Says No Right to Concealed Gun Carry - NBC News

 

The 9th Circuit is the most overturned Federal Circuit court in the United States, it's not even close.

For all the people celebrating this, I wonder if they would be so happy with such a blatant disregard for the rest of the Bill of Rights?

 

That's already happened. Witness the Patriot Act, asset forfeiture, immigration checkpoints inside our borders, Guantanamo, etc...

 

Yeah, I personally am much more concerned with civil forfeiture than having to provide a satisfactory reason to get a carry permit.

I'm just one of those crazies who don't like the idea of the police being able to take away my stuff without even charging me with a crime just because they like it.

 

It's actually pretty difficult for the government (at least the state & local level) to permanently seize money/property under civil forfeiture. Each case has to have its own hearing, there isn't a blanket law that says "Too bad, so sad, we're taking your stuff". Even cases where a ridiculous amount of cash is seized from someone who has no job or other recognizable source of income, yet they have 100 bags of heroin in their new Mercedes, the police seizure is only temporary until there's a forfeiture hearing before a judge.

I'm far more concerned with being able to protect myself and my family than I am about the police seizing what's in my wallet (there's never much). You have to be alive to be pissed about having your money taken.