Carrying gun without permit endorsed

A nonbinding resolution declaring Arkansas a state where one can carry a handgun without a permit — also known as “constitutional carry” — was endorsed by a House committee Tuesday, while advocates and opponents of gun control flooded the Capitol.

More than 120 members of the gun-control group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, clad in red shirts, held an advocacy day, according to Austin Bailey, a veteran member from Little Rock. Bailey said the group was focused on opposing a number of proposals during this year’s regular legislative session.

The group’s visit coincided with a committee hearing on House Resolution 1013 by Rep. Brandt Smith, R-Jonesboro, which would declare any resident can carry firearms around the state, either in the open or concealed, without a permit.

The meeting room for the House Judiciary Committee, which debated the resolution, was quickly packed by members of that group, as well as gun advocates and others. The Capitol Police stopped admitting more people before the start of the meeting.

Left outside the meeting room were dozens of activists on both sides of the issue. Among them was Jan Morgan, the Hot Springs gunrange owner who challenged Gov. Asa Hutchinson in the Republican gubernatorial primary last year, specifically by denouncing him as weak on gun rights.

Morgan didn’t address the committee, though Linda Collins, a former GOP state senator from Pocahontas, did. Collins told the committee HR1013 was “affirming the laws that we already have on the books.”

Several Democrats on the Judiciary Committee disagreed. A member of Moms Demand Action, Laura Cartwright Hardy, spoke against the bill.

“Permit-less carry is extremely dangerous, and we shouldn’t be encouraging it in Arkansas,” Cartwright Hardy said.

The legality of what gunrights advocates call constitutional carry has been the subject of much debate in Arkansas since the Legislature passed Act 746 of 2013, which dealt with the offense of carrying a weapon. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and Hutchinson have both opined the law allows for handguns to be carried openly.

Not all prosecutors and police chiefs in the state, however, have taken that opinion.

Democrats argued if Republicans wanted to make the law clear, they should change the law to do so. As a nonbinding resolution, HR1013 wouldn’t be law.

While an earlier meeting of the Judiciary Committee deadlocked and failed to register a vote on the resolution, the committee on Tuesday endorsed the resolution by a voice vote, sending it to the House floor.