imported post
thx997303 wrote:
Interesting you would be so quick to relinquish a right in favor of a privilege in such a good place for exercising that right.
Respectfully, I think there is way too much made of this supposed distinction of OCing being a "right' and CCing being a "privilege."
As far as I'm concerned, both are rights. And both are infringed to various degrees.
Have you ever really looked at how many gun free school zones we have in Utah once you consider K-12, plus licensed day cares, PLUS every post secondary and trade school including beauty schools and real estate schools located in strip malls? Then toss in the 1000' radius. Sure, not really enforced very often, but always a risk if some cop and prosecutor decide to make your life miserable.
And what, my "right" to carry a gun somehow requires that the gun be "Utah unloaded"?!?!?!?!!
The fact of the matter is, the State Constitution does not grant the legislature ANY authority to regulate how we carry a gun, only to regulate the actual USE of guns.
So our right to carry is infringed. It is infringed in requiring a permit to carry loaded, or concealed, or into a "school zone."
Our legal choices at the present time are to NOT carry loaded, NOT carry discretely, AND not carry into a school zone, OR to get a permit and make the personal choice, day by day, even hour by hour or minute by minute, on all of the above.
OC is
A fine way to carry. CC is another fine way to carry. Casually concealed is yet another perfectly good way to carry. Doing any (or more than one: OC or CCC a primary, CC a BUG) of the above without having to worry about school zones, AND in condition 1, has some real advantages so far as I'm concerned.
Peaceably carrying a gun is
right. Period, end of story. It is just infringed to various degrees and having a permit to carry increases your legal options in how and where to carry.
The good news, however, is that in Utah, the right to carry is less infringed this year than it was last year as we can now CC a fully loaded handgun in our own cars without needing a permit. It is less infringed than it was 15 years ago when it was difficult to obtain a permit under discretionary issue.
Let's work to make sure it is less infringed in the years ahead, than it is today.
Charles