Best States For Concealed Carry (Guns & Ammo Article)

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In South Dakota, you go to the sheriff's office and they do a NICS background check on you. If you pass, you pay $10 and fill out a "temporary" permit. Then, a couple weeks later, a spiffy laminated permit shows up in the mail that you can put in your wallet. All 3 of my daughters and my wife have pistol permits.
 
I was surprised to see Ohio was so far down the list. Our law started out pretty restrictive, with duty to inform, bars off limits, some screwy regs about not concealing while driving, and such, but that's all gone, now. They've improved it just about every year since it passed. They just passed another round, including a stand your ground provision, as well.

The article also dinged Ohio for poor reciprocity. There is one glaring problem, in that we can't carry in PA, one of our neighbors to the East. Otherwise, though, it's pretty reasonable. The Utah non-res permit only adds a couple of states anymore.

As for my carry history, I started carrying back before we had permits at all. At that time, there was a provision in the law which allowed one to carry "in a situation that would justify a reasonable man in going armed." For most people that was pretty vague, but since I was clerking in a gas station, alone, at night, only yards from a major interstate, I was pretty sure that even a pretty unreasonable man would feel justified in my shoes.

When the permit law did go through, I got mine shortly thereafter. The class, at the time, was 12 hours, on one long day, with a range session at the end. You had to hit a life sized human silhouette about two thirds of the time from a few feet. I forget the exact numbers, but it was a pretty easy test. Still though, some of my classmates struggled with it. The three best groups were shot by A) my dad, with his Highway Patrolman, B) me, with a 4" Model 10, and C) a lady realtor, with her scoped .44 Mag Raging Bull. Many of the rest might have been shooting shotguns. After that experience, I began to see the value of some required training. I'd like to have been able to show my competitive record and skip it, but it wasn't that trying an ordeal.

My real gripes aren't with Ohio, they're with the preposterous morass of regulations that the states' rights, piecemeal approach has gotten us. I travel for a living, now, and am liable to be sent to any of the contiguous states without much notice. The biggest hurdle is the virulently anti-gun states on the coasts, obviously. But even when traveling amongst friendly states, it's an enormous hassle to have to consult 700 road miles of law books every morning, to know what set of rules apply where.

Eventually, I did the risk analysis math, and concluded that I'm several times more likely to be hassled by a cop than a criminal. With the legal risks outweighing the physical ones, I eventually gave up trying to carry at work, even though it can take me to some pretty sketchy areas at times. That puts me in the ironic position of being well prepared to meet any threat that may arise, when on my personal time in rural Ohio, but facing the inner cities, rest stops, and other sketchy parts of the country unarmed.
 
Mat said:
I was surprised to see Ohio was so far down the list. Our law started out pretty restrictive, with duty to inform, bars off limits, some screwy regs about not concealing while driving, and such, but that's all gone, now. They've improved it just about every year since it passed. They just passed another round, including a stand your ground provision, as well.

I'm really glad to hear that things have improved back there! I grew up in Ohio, learned to shoot and hunt there, and then moved out to Colorado shortly after college. While I was there in the pre-CCW days I attended a lot of the rallies and whatnot that were attempting to get people to change their mindset about guns/CCW issues in favor of a decent CCW law. I remember that the first significant CCW law went into effect a few months after I moved out here, and I remember how disappointed I was with the restrictions that were included in that law.

I still regularly travel to Ohio to see family (going there on Wednesday, actually), and I'm fortunate that my professional credentials give me the ability to circumnavigate most of the stupid regulations that make it so hard for other people to travel state-to-state with firearms. I do wish we could get some Colorado-Ohio reciprocity for the sake of my family members (actually, I'd really prefer if everyone could have nationwide carry rights like I do).
 
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