Venting about the complexity of interstate concealed carry laws...

[leadcounsel]

So, I'm doing research for an upcoming road trip out west, traveling through a dozen states, into state parks, national parks, national forests, cities, etc. I'm looking at state statutes and helpful sites like www.handgunlaw.us and usacarry.org.

On the one hand I'm thankful that I can lawfully carry nearly everywhere I go. On the other hand, it's such a pain in the butt to plan road trips and visit parks and such because the laws vary so widely and arbitrarily. You can take a step from a lawful state like Kentucky to an illegal state like Illinois... I understand the state has its own inherent right to set laws and I typically agree. I just think that concealed carry is such a fundamental right that it should not be arbitrarily taken, particularly when entering a park within a state that allows concealed carry.

I know that the laws will further take effect in 2010 that allow some expansive concealed carry. But until then it's a real pain in the butt to know that there's a window that it's been agreed to but it's not taken effect yet! That's the real absurdity!

 

[Deanimator]

The last couple of years, I've gone deer hunting at a friend's farm in Missouri. This last year I had my Ohio CHL. I was fine all of the way from Cleveland to the Indiana-Illinois border. Just short of the border, we stopped so that I could disarm. We drove the relatively short distance between Indiana and St. Louis, whereupon I rearmed for the rest of the trip.

We spent little or no money in Illinois, a policy I recommend to any gun owner who must travel through that state. If they think it's better that I be robbed or murdered than to defend myself, I think it's better that they use their own money to enforce such things.

 

[leadcounsel]

Just short of the border, we stopped so that I could disarm. We drove the relatively short distance between Indiana and St. Louis, whereupon I rearmed for the rest of the trip.

We spent little or no money in Illinois, a policy I recommend to any gun owner who must travel through that state. If they think it's better that I be robbed or murdered than to defend myself, I think it's better that they use their own money to enforce such things.

I have the same policy. When I have to drive through states like Illinois (I've had to 3 times recently, I fuel up before the border, disarm, and refuse to stop for any reason and spend ZERO dollars there. And I typically refuse to even go to states/areas that are anti-gun.