This is all relative. I travel a lot, and one thing I've learned is that most people think that how things are where they live is pretty much normal everywhere else. Those of us that have a keen interest in this issue know that is indeed not the case. Progress is being made towards removing restrictions state by state but it is painfully slow for those of us that believe that the Second Amendment is our authorization to carry. I remember the first time I saw an average citizen open carrying in Virginia, circa 2000. I felt like I had seen the Loch Ness Monster.
I lived in Ohio my entire life until last year. I became involved in the fight to get legal concealed carry in the mid 90's. It was extremely frustrating to feel like I was in the .1% that could see the truth. Even people at gun shows were... skeptical at just turning everyone loose with handguns. I really wanted something like Vermont to exist, but if having to accept a licensing system I thought Indiana was a perfectly acceptable model to follow. What we ended up with in 2004 was a law only slightly better than the nightmare Illinois has now. It was full of poison pills that they are still trying to chip away at every year. They have had a great deal of success at doing so, but it's still an aggravatingly slow process. When I received my first Ohio LTCH I felt like I had jumped through enough flaming hoops to be a qualified circus poodle.
My point here is that Ohio went from no system, to a kind of bad one, and has continued to improve it because there is a loud and motivated and well organized group of people that won't let the issue go. They can all remember when there was a total prohibition and never want to see that again. The contrast to that is here in Indiana. There has been a decent (by way of comparison) system in place here for generations. It has worked pretty well, and been changed little and most people are used to it including the politicians, who are bust rocking different boats.
Do I support Constitutional carry here? Of course. I just believe it's going to be a bit of a hard sell when the average gun owner/carrier here believes that what we have isn't really that bad. The laws are swinging our way on a national scale, and I believe Constitutional carry will happen here before a lot of states. There are other states like California, New York, and New Jersey that will never change unless there's a federal cram-down forcing them to do so.
Perhaps next year. We can dream, can't we?
I lived in Ohio my entire life until last year. I became involved in the fight to get legal concealed carry in the mid 90's. It was extremely frustrating to feel like I was in the .1% that could see the truth. Even people at gun shows were... skeptical at just turning everyone loose with handguns. I really wanted something like Vermont to exist, but if having to accept a licensing system I thought Indiana was a perfectly acceptable model to follow. What we ended up with in 2004 was a law only slightly better than the nightmare Illinois has now. It was full of poison pills that they are still trying to chip away at every year. They have had a great deal of success at doing so, but it's still an aggravatingly slow process. When I received my first Ohio LTCH I felt like I had jumped through enough flaming hoops to be a qualified circus poodle.
My point here is that Ohio went from no system, to a kind of bad one, and has continued to improve it because there is a loud and motivated and well organized group of people that won't let the issue go. They can all remember when there was a total prohibition and never want to see that again. The contrast to that is here in Indiana. There has been a decent (by way of comparison) system in place here for generations. It has worked pretty well, and been changed little and most people are used to it including the politicians, who are bust rocking different boats.
Do I support Constitutional carry here? Of course. I just believe it's going to be a bit of a hard sell when the average gun owner/carrier here believes that what we have isn't really that bad. The laws are swinging our way on a national scale, and I believe Constitutional carry will happen here before a lot of states. There are other states like California, New York, and New Jersey that will never change unless there's a federal cram-down forcing them to do so.
Perhaps next year. We can dream, can't we?
