People call them lots of things, depending on the state that you're in, but whether it's a Concealed Weapons Permit, a Concealed Pistol Permit, a Concealed Carry Permit, a carry card, whut-EVER, it allows you to have a loaded firearm on your person, in your purse, in your car, etc. They are all issued separately for whatever state you live in, usually by either the statewide police agency or your county sheriff's department. Not every state allows concealed carry (cough coughIllinoiscough), which is bad. How are you supposed to be able to defend yourself against muggers/dogs/bears/zombies/whatever if carrying a TOOL to defend yourself is against the law? In Illinois, you have to apply for a card/permit to even PURCHASE a firearm. >:( I am not going all NRA-crazy here, but that sounds suspiciously like "infringing" my "right" to "keep" and "bear" arms, if you ask me.
And i guess i am a little stymied as to how something like that would even purport to work. I mean, me, Law-Abiding Lucy, has to fill out a bunch of forms and pay a bunch of money to purchase a firearm. Great. Fan-freaking-tastic. Does that inconvenience to ME stop Criminal Carl from buying a used gun from some crackhead and mugging people with it? NO. Gun laws like this are well-intentioned but they do NOT stop guns from getting into the hands of people who are going to do something stupid and give guns a bad name. Laws don't stop criminals from doing anything. These people don't follow laws. THAT'S WHY THEY ARE CRIMINALS. Gun laws just get in my way and piss me off. grrr.
Anyways, on to more awesome things.
Some states allow OPEN carry, which is cool. Meaning, if I want to have a gun on my hip, covered by a Carhartt jacket, that is considered "concealed" and i need a permit. But if the state allows open carry, i can have that same gun on my hip NOT covered by a Carhartt jacket, and go swaggering down the street nice and legal. Awesome. Wisconsin is an example of this. They do not issue concealed carry permits but open carry has to be specifically prohibited by the building or place of business.
I got a . . . checking . . . Concealed Weapons LICENSE (whatEVER) when I moved to Idaho because I have guns in my car on a regular basis, and while that alone is perfectly legal, it makes things easier if i were to, for example, get pulled over with three shotguns in the backseat.* John Law likes to see the license because it means that I am not only a law-abiding citizen, but also that I have been photographed, fingerprinted, paid a license fee, and been subjected to a national FBI and local background check to make sure I'm not a felon. Felons in the United States lose their right to keep and bear arms. So don't do crime, kids; it's not worth losing a chance to (legally) play with sweet sweet guns.
*-This is actully pretty likely to happen if I am headed to the gun club. ;)
Here is a kick-ass website that has all the info on what your state issues, along with your state's reciprocity information. Meaning, does your state honor carry permits from OTHER states? Not all of them do, folks! It is one of the vagaries of this wacky nation. There have been legislative attempts to standardize carry laws across state lines, but they are usually fought by most gun-rights organizations for a couple of reasons. 1) Because nationwide standards start us all down a slippery slope to standardized firearm licensing requirements, which are bad, and 2) a nationwide standard has to be voted on by Congress, and the vast majority of Congresspeople come from heavily populated, urban areas. They have generally grown up thinking that guns are bad, and no one has ever taken the time to teach them to shoot and demonstrated that guns are nothing but tools. So who is to say that Congress wouldn't decide to enact a nationwide standard based on, say, Illinois' dumbass position? Nobody, either pro- or anti-gun, wants to fight that fight, and that's why everyone is happy to leave that as it is, as a states' rights issue.
Anyways. Concealed weapons permits! Go get one!
And yes, i am still working on Rifle Post. FEVERISHLY working. Well, not really. But you can pretend.
