Arkansas open carry bill fails on committee voice vote

Attaboy said:

Given that the present HB1051 presently in commitee is virtually the same as the bill proposed by Rep. Mike Martin a year ago, I'm now wondering if open carry bills are being proposed with wording intentionally omitting any requirements which would assuage commitee members' concerns and allow an open carry bill to pass into the house for a vote. Is this a pre-emptive "blocking" tactic to indefinitely put off legalizing open carry in Arkansas? Hmmmmm...

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I know over here in OK we were having a similar issue in regards to certain things killing OC for us, only for us it has to do with cops being able to stop OCers and demand ID and the requiring a CWL (soon to be HWL) to OC. Even though it's not ideal, it was our 2A legislators who told us that these things need to stay in the bill or else it would risk not passing and we can work on getting them changed/removed after we have OC.

I would suggest amending your right to bear arms amendment with much stronger wording! Get it introduced in the legislature, get it passed and sent to the people for ratification! If you had a constitutional amendment like Ky does, then you could win unlicensed open carry through the courts. We have had unlicensed OC since statehood and haven't had a problem in over 200 years with that right. When we venture into the CHAMBERS of our state Capitol, or into city or county commission meetings, state law requires us to OC, since cc is banned in these places. OC is allowed and can't be prohibited do to our state pre-emption in every state, city, and county owned building, and again, NO PROBLEMS!! Ky's constitutional amendment:


All men are, by nature, free and equal, and have certain inherent and inalienable rights, among which may be reckoned: The right to bear arms in defense of themselves and of the State, subject to the power of the General Assembly to enact laws to prevent persons from carrying concealed weapons.

Only concealed weapons can be controlled in my state, and we have no restrictions on openly carried firearms! Local units of government can deny your right to openly bear other deadly weapons besides firearms inside their buildings, but most don't. We can OC any deadly weapon in Ky, and that's the way it should be everywhere!