65% of USA Enjoys Right to Carry
without a Government Permission Slip
Click to enlarge image
By Dean Weingarten. May 22, 2023
In 1791, when the Bill of Rights was ratified, no permit was required for a member of the People of the United States to carry arms, included loaded handguns, in nearly all public spaces. By 1986, only Vermont still had the right to carry loaded, concealed, handguns without a permit. A significant number of states continued to maintain a right to carry loaded handguns openly, but the right was severely constrained in practice. In 1986 there were eight states which had "shall issue" laws for concealed carry permits. Those states were Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington State. The total land area of the United States of America is 3,805,927 square miles. The land area of Vermont is 9,616 square miles, or .25% of the land area of the USA.
In 1987, Florida passed a landmark shall issue concealed carry bill. In a political tradeoff, spearheaded by disgraced former Attorney General Janet Reno, then the Florida state Attorney General for Miami-Dade, open carry was severely curtailed. Reno later became famous for being in charge of the Department of Justice during the Waco massacre overseen by the FBI.
The Florida shall-issue law has been widely viewed as starting the revolution to restore Second Amendment rights in the USA.
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Despite the gradual relatively good progress toward carry freedoms, we still see the usual anti-2A "may" issue culprits sticking out for maximum obfuscation. Several of the "shall issue" states also continue to resist, with usually leftist governance refusing to go the full mile.
