Evolution of public-carry laws expands gun rights
This project was produced by News21, a national investigative reporting project involving top college journalism students across the country and headquartered at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University
WICKENBURG, Ariz. — More Americans can carry guns in more places than ever before. In the majority of states, law-abiding gun owners can walk into bars, restaurants and churches with their guns without fear of legal ramifications, a News21 review of all 50 states found.
“It’s a situation just like getting up in the morning and putting your shoes on or your boots on. For me it’s putting (my gun) onto my side,” said Lee Bird, owner of Twin Birds Saddlery in Wickenburg, Arizona, 60 miles northwest of Phoenix. Bird openly carries a .38 Smith & Wesson Special revolver on his hip everyday.
Related: 081814 Public Carry Map
“People look at you, but I ignore it,” Bird said. “I’m not carrying it for attention. I’m carrying it because I want people to know that if there is an incident somewhere, that I am there to defend myself or my family.”
Although Bird prefers to openly carry, sometimes he keeps his gun concealed in his briefcase or pocket. Arizona has some of the strongest gun rights laws in the country. It is one of seven states that do not require gun owners to get a permit to carry a concealed gun.
Thirty years ago, Bird wouldn’t have been able to carry his gun concealed at all. Historically many states heavily restricted who could own a handgun or banned the concealed carry of handguns altogether.
Related: Public Carry Video
“People have come to think of the Second Amendment as protecting the individual right to keep and bear arms,” said Joseph Blocher, a law professor at Duke University specializing in constitutional law. “Also, I think people have come to oppose strong handgun laws and things like that which have in the past found favor.”
There’s more to this story. Click here to read the rest at the Center for Public Integrity.
This story is part of Gun wars. The struggle over rights and regulation in America. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.
Related stories
Children's Defense Fund report on kids' gun deaths, new gun laws
A year after Newtown, searching for answers in the nation’s schools
Badly flawed background check system fails to contain firearms sales
Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
