The “Shall-Issue” Concealed Carry Movement

With the enactment of a “Shall Issue” concealed carry law in Illinois (the law was passed in 2013, but did not take effect until 2014), all 50 states now authorize some legal means for their citizens to carry concealed firearms. Of those, 41 states have “Shall Issue” laws, while the remaining 9 have “May-Issue” laws. In those states with “Shall-Issue” laws, a citizen must be granted a license if they meet the qualifications stated in the law. In “May-Issue” states, even if the citizen meets the qualifications, they may be denied a license if the approving authority does not think they have a good reason to be issued one.

The “concealed carry movement” is probably the most successful political movement in recent memory. Many point to the passage of the “Shall-Issue” concealed carry law in Florida in 1987 as the decisive point where the movement really started to take off, but Florida was not the first state to enact a “Shall-Issue” law. That privilege belongs to the state of Washington which enacted its law in 1961, followed by Indiana in 1980. Of course Vermont never prohibited its citizens from carry firearms—either openly or concealed—since it first became a state in 1791.

Given the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788, and the enactment of the Bill of Rights in 1789, one might wonder when and why restrictions on carrying firearms came into being in the first place. It will probably surprise you to learn that the first places to ban carrying of concealed weapons were not the most populated states at the time. Rather it was in Kentucky and Louisiana (1813); Indiana (1820); Georgia (1837); Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia (1838); and Alabama (1839).

Early bans were less directed at guns than they were knives and short swords/cane swords. Guns of the period were fairly bulky and hard to conceal but weapons with blades were not. Such bladed weapons were often used in rowdy frontier street fights with deadly results. Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831) provided the motivation in the southern slave-owning states to enact restrictions on possessing and carrying concealed weap ons. For over 130 years, from the 1850s until the late 1980s, restrictions on carrying concealed weapons was the norm in the United States.

However, the 1960s and 1970s saw a dramatic increase in the crime rate in the U.S. Increasingly citizens felt they were victims and that law enforcement could not protect them. This realization brought on the calls to allow private citizens to protect themselves by carrying concealed firearms. Of course the demand for less restrictive firearms laws did not end when Illinois’ legislature passed their “Shall-Issue” concealed carry law. In order to gain approval, most state lawmakers placed a great deal of restrictions on when and where a concealed firearm could be carried. Critics of concealed carry claimed that “blood will run in the streets” and it will be “like the Old West all over again” with the passage of each law. Of course that never happened. Indeed, it seems that as the number of guns own by private citizens and the number of people with concealed carry licenses has gone up, the crime rate has dropped. Fewer and fewer Americans support restrictive gun control laws. State legislatures are responding by reducing the restrictions they originally imposed on their citizens as they liberalize their concealed carry laws. Examples of this are the enactment of “Castle Doctrine” and “Stand Your Ground” provisions. Laws are being changed to authorize licensed concealed carry holders to go armed on college campuses. Efforts are underway to allow school administrators, faculty, and staff to carry firearms to protect their students from active killers. There are calls to reduce or eliminate “no gun zones”. With each change, the adverse effects predicted have not materialized. Citizens feel more in control of their lives and less dependent on the government to protect them as they go about their daily routines.

Ohio has seen this same trend of “liberalizing” concealed carry laws since it was enacted in 2004. Indeed, more Ohioans—almost 500,000—than ever are now licensed to carry a concealed handgun. Last year (2015) saw the second largest grow in CHL’s issued since the law went into effect, and the third year in a row that over 100,000 licenses (both new and renewal) were issued.

Less than one half of one percent (i.e. <0.5%) of all concealed carry licenses issued by Ohio have been revoked for any reason. This includes both those of individuals that died and those that moved out of the state. About 25% of the revoked licenses were a result of a determination that the training provided to those license holders did not meet the minimum requirements.

All the indicators point to continued growth in the number of licenses issued each year, both in Ohio and in the rest of the nation.

Gary Evens is a NRA-Certified Instructor and Range Safety Officer.