History of concealed carry in the U.S.
The history of concealed carry in the United States is the evolution of public opinion, policy, and law regarding the practice of carrying concealed firearms, especially revolvers and semi-automatic pistols.
Public perception on concealed carry vs open carry has largely flipped. In the early days of the United States, open carrying of firearms, long guns and revolvers was a common and well-accepted practice. Seeing guns carried openly was not considered to be any cause for alarm. Therefore, anyone who would carry a firearm but attempt to conceal it was considered to have something to hide, and presumed to be a criminal. For this reason, concealed carry was denounced as a detestable practice in the early days of the United States.
As time went on, however, fewer people carried weapons openly. Today, open carry of firearms, even where explicitly legal, can cause alarm, depending on the location. Further, partly because of ongoing debate about best public safety practices, it is often assumed that those who would practice open carry are attempting to cause an uproar or to invite criticism and debate in the streets. In addition, much advice about defensive tactics point out that, since it is relatively easy to strip a firearm and use it against its owner, firearms carried solely for defense ought to be carried concealed where no one would know that they existed unless the owner had good cause and justification to draw it.
Early bans
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the right to "keep and bear arms". Although District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) decided that this applied to an individual right to arm in defense of oneself, whether the Second Amendment truly grants an individual right, or the right of each of the several States to have a militia composed of citizens (i.e. today's National Guard) remains an issue of public debate. However, the constitutions of 30 states expressly protect an individual right to keep and bear arms (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming). Case law in 8 other states (Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin) protects the individual right, making a total of 39 states that expressly protect an individual right to keep and bear arms. However, the constitutions of Missouri (1875), North Carolina (1875), Colorado (1876), Montana (1889), and New Mexico (1912) explicitly prohibit concealed carry. Further, the constitutions of Kentucky (1850), Louisiana (1879), Mississippi (1890) and Idaho (1978) permit their respective Legislatures to regulate or prohibit concealed carry. This is because concealing weapons used to be thought of as a practice done exclusively by criminals.
Vermont
The state of Vermont is a notable exception to the trend in concealed carry laws. According to its Constitution, it is forbidden from regulating the carrying of firearms, either open or concealed. For this reason, Vermont became by accident the first state to have permitless carry, also known as "Constitutional carry" or "Vermont carry." However, Vermont's utter refusal to touch the subject of concealed carry regulation leaves its citizens without the ability to acquire a concealed carry permit in their home state. This causes problems for Vermonters travelling to states that recognize only resident carry permits, and for Vermonters who would apply for nonresident permits in states that require proof of a resident concealed carry permit before they will consider issuing a nonresident permit. This could theoretically also cause problems under the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, which through its 1000-foot radius provision, makes unlicensed carrying of firearms illegal under Federal law in nearly every part of any city or town, although in practice this Act is rarely (if ever) enforced against persons who are not either on school property or committing some other crime. For these reasons, every other state to adopt permitless carry has kept its permitting process in place.
Reconstruction and Discrimination
During Reconstruction, several states, especially Southern states, passed laws banning concealed carry. These laws were often aimed at disarming African-Americans, and though they did not explicitly say so because of the 14th Amendment, were not to be enforced against whites.
Rivers H. Buford, associate justice of the Florida Supreme Court, said that the Florida law banning concealed carry, "[t]he original Act of 1893 ... was passed for the purpose of disarming the negro laborers ... and to give the white citizens in sparsely settled areas a better feeling of security. The statute was never intended to be applied to the white population and in practice has never been so applied. ... [I]t is a safe guess to assume that more than 80% of the white men living in the rural sections of Florida have violated this statute. It is also a safe guess to say that not more than 5% of the men in Florida who own pistols and repeating rifles have ever applied to the Board of County Commissioners for a permit to have the same in their possession and there has never been, within my knowledge, any effort to enforce the provisions of this statute as to white people, because it has been generally conceded to be in contravention to the Constitution and non-enforceable if contested."[1]
In fact, Florida was not the only such state to ban the carriage of arms by blacks, nor was it the most explicit. The 1834 Tennessee Constitution, 1836 Arkansas Constitution, as well as the 1838 Florida constitution, stated "That the free white men of this State shall have a right to keep and to bear arms for their common defence."
Concealed carry licensing wave: 1976-1996
The modern wave of concealed carry legislation and licensing perhaps had its start in 1976 in Georgia. The Georgia Legislature passed a [2]
In 1987, Florida went from may-issue to shall-issue.
In 1989, four states became "shall-issue": Georgia, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia went from "may-issue" to "shall issue." Tennessee went from "no-issue" to "may-issue."
In 1990, two states became "shall-issue", Idaho and Mississippi. Idaho had been may-issue, Mississippi had been no issue.
In 1991, Montana became "shall-issue." went from "may issue" to "shall issue."
In 1994, three states became "shall-issue": Alaska, Arizona, Tennessee, and Colorado. Tennessee had been "may issue" since 1989; Colorado was also "may issue." Alaska and Arizona had not previously issued permits.
In 1995, seven states became "shall-issue": Nevada, Utah, and Virginia had previously been may-issue, whereas Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and North Carolina had previously been no-issue.
In 1996, three more states became "shall-issue": Louisiana, South Carolina and Kentucky. Of these, Kentucky had been no-issue, whereas South Carolina and Louisiana had been may-issue. This brought the entire Deep South to "shall-issue," and increased the number of "shall-issue" states to 30. Only 7 states remained "no-issue" under state law.
Second concealed licensing wave and the beginnings of constitutional carry
In 2001, Michigan became "shall issue". It had previously been "may-issue."
In 2003, Alaska repealed its law restricting concealed carry of firearms, becoming the second state where concealed carry is unrestricted. Unlike Vermont, it kept its licensing scheme in place so that residents could apply for permits for reciprocity purposes with states that require a residential carry permit. Concealed carrying of firearms remained illegal for anyone prohibited from possessing firearms under federal or state law, but any non-prohibited person no longer required a permit to carry a firearm.
Also in 2003, four more states became "shall-issue": Minnesota and Colorado had been may-issue, and Missouri and New Mexico which had been no-issue.
In 2004, Ohio became "shall-issue." It previously had been "no-issue."
In 2006, two states became "shall-issue": Kansas and Nebraska. These both had previously been no-issue; this left Wisconsin and Illinois as the only two "no-issue" states. 37 states were "shall-issue," 2 were unrestricted, and 9 were "may-issue."
Heller and the constitutional carry wave: 2008 to present
In 2008, the Supreme Court of the United States decided District of Columbia v. Heller, establishing for the first time that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution guaranteed an individual right to keep and bear arms in defense of oneself. From that point on, more states adopted Constitutional carry policies, and the last "no-issue" holdouts gave way.
In 2010, Arizona became the third state (after Alaska and Vermont) to permit constitutional carry.
In 2011, Wyoming became the fourth Constitutional carry state. Also in 2011, Wisconsin was the 49th state to legally abandon a "no-issue" policy, adopting instead a "shall-issue" policy. (Other states remained "no-issue" in practice, but not in law.) That same year, Iowa changed its "may-issue" policy to become "shall issue."
In 2013, Arkansas became an ambiguously Constitutional-carry state, a position that was further solidified with a precedent set in 2018 in Taff v State of Arkansas. Briefly, this case considered a person suspected of stealing from a convenience store who, upon interview, was found to be carrying a concealed firearm and charged with carrying unlawfully. The charge was dismissed, as the defendant had not used the firearm unlawfully, nor had demonstrated intent to do so. The court held that simply carrying a concealed firearm by a person not otherwise prohibited is not a criminal act.
2013 also marked the last of the 50 states to abandon a "no-issue" policy when Illinois began a "shall-issue" policy.
In 2015, two states, Maine and Kansas, adopted forms of Constitutional carry.
In 2016, four states adopted some form of Constitutional carry: Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, and West Virginia.
In 2017, two more states adopted Constitutional carry, North Dakota and New Hampshire.
On January 31, 2019, newly elected South Dakota governor Kristi Noem signed a bill into law that makes South Dakota a constitutional carry state. The first law signed by her administration, the law goes into effect on July 1, 2019.
Unsettled issues
In 2018, Oklahoma's legislature passed Constitutional carry legislation, only to have it vetoed by then-governor Mary Fallin. The new governor of Oklahoma promised to sign Constitutional carry legislation if sent to his desk.
Despite all states being either "shall issue" or "may issue" (or in the case of Vermont, unrestricted & no-issue), some areas of the United States continue to be no-issue in practice.
Hawaii, which issues a concealed carry permit which must be renewed every year, granted zero permits in 2016 and 2017, and in fact has granted only four permits since 1997. Hawaii's concealed carry permits are only valid in the county of issue, so even with a permit, one could only carry in one's home county.
In California and Rhode Island, one must apply to one's local police agency. While some agencies are fairly liberal and issue permits to anyone without a criminal record, some of these are notoriously strict, and deny most applications. Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and New York City are "may-issue" jurisdictions that are also known to be restrictive and arbitrary in their issuance.
In January 2019, the Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari regarding New York City's strict concealed carry laws.
References
- "Supreme Court of Florida: Watson v. Stone, 4 So. 2d 700 (Fla. 1941)". CourtListener.com.
- "A History of Concealed Carry". Texas Concealed Handgun Association. Retrieved 2019-01-28.