Source.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) – In the state of Indiana, gun owners no longer need any sort of permit to carry a handgun while in public spaces. For less than a year, this has been the case after the state removed the requirement for handgun permits, and some in law enforcement aren’t happy about the change.

Before the Indiana state legislature officially removed the requirement for handgun permits, many in law enforcement weren’t convinced.

“I, along with most of my other law enforcement colleagues, were very apprehensive about this,” said Vanderburgh County Sheriff Noah Robinson.

Before the change, a gun owner looking to have a gun in public had to go to their local sheriff’s office or police department for the application and eventually, the Indiana State Police would say either yes or no.

Sheriff Robinson says this gave law enforcement valuable information. Without it, it raises more questions as they try to determine if a suspicious person with a gun is allowed to have it.

“Before, that determination was made in a quiet office over a period of weeks where someone would investigate your background and make that determination,” said Robinson. “We now have to do that on the side of the road. It’s not practical.”

The law doesn’t allow violent felons to have handguns in public, but that doesn’t always apply to those with patterns of violent behavior or mental instability who wouldn’t have been approved for a handgun permit.

“I think it decreases public safety, I think it decreases officer safety, and time will tell whether that’s borne out or not,” said Robinson.

Sheriff Robinson says permits were also valuable when they found people doing things they shouldn’t and they found a gun on them. When other charges didn’t apply, having the gun meant they could arrest the person and take and gun away.

It was also an additional source of information for them when approaching people.

“To have had the information and had that taken away from us is frustrating, because it took a system that wasn’t broken and broke it,” said Robinson.

Or perhaps this made an unconstitutional system finally constitutional.  Everything depends on perspective, yes?

This is a remarkable set of admissions from a CLEO.  They want decisions about your God-given rights to be made in a quiet room with no one watching over their shoulder and no recourse for faulty decisions that infringe on your rights.  He said so.

Also, note the use he sees in the permitting scheme.  For conditions where “other charges didn’t apply,” he could always get his man with a weapons charge.  But what does this mean – other charges didn’t apply?  It means, I take it, that the alleged perpetrator wasn’t really guilty of the crime for which he had been accused.  The LEOs are thus the judiciary in this circumstance.  He’s really guilty of doing something we don’t want, but we can’t prove it beyond as reasonable doubt.  But we can surely prove he was carrying a weapon, so there, perp.  Take that.

As for whether someone is carrying a weapon, his officers should always assume that is the case.  It’s the case with permitted carriers, and it’s the case with criminals who never obeyed the law anyway.  So what’s changed?

Nothing.  And he can’t point to blood running in the streets because of permitless carry because it hasn’t happened.

The sky is falling.  But not really.

News from Indiana.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb made Constitutional Carry the law in Indiana on March 21.

This will allow any Indiana resident over 18-years-old who qualifies to carry a handgun on their person without a permit to do so.

Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding says that it could make law enforcement’s jobs considerably harder.

“Now, if you have maybe three people who shouldn’t possess a weapon inside of a vehicle, and they get stopped by police and there is a weapon,” said Wedding, “they can have some young person, 18-year-old person in the car and just claim, hey, those are my guns.”

So what?  It’s none of your business.  Mind you own business, nosey.  Issue the traffic citation and move on.

Officials say on July 1 no one in Indiana will be required to have a carry permit.

Good.  Constitutional carry comes to yet another state, and here’s yet another prediction.  There won’t be blood running in the streets and regardless of the predictions of chicken little, the sky won’t fall.

Now.  How about South Carolina?

News from Indiana.

Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday signed into law Senate Bill 215, which passed the General Assembly on March 2 and was hailed by supporters as a historic Second Amendment victory.

[ … ]

Also, if a driver is stopped by police, that person would not (sic) longer be required to inform officers of the concealed weapon unless specifically asked.

Good on the constitutional carry.  Also good on the requirement to tell LEOs you’re carrying.  I think that leads to bad relations.  LEOs should always assume you’re carrying and be kind and respectful.

Now.  Don’t you feel embarrassed, South Carolina?  You passed open carry (which of course was a long time coming) but rejected constitutional carry.

What are you waiting for?

News from Indiana.

Despite opposition from State Police, the Indiana House on Monday voted to eliminate the license to carry a handgun in Indiana.

House Bill 1369 passed the House by a 65-31 vote and now heads to the Senate, where its already picked up key endorsements. Under the legislation, sometimes called “constitutional carry,” certain offenders still could be prohibited from carrying handguns.

The bill would eliminate the license in March 2022. The licenses raise $5.3 million per year to train law enforcement officers, a tab that taxpayers would at least partially have to pick up.

Opponents worry the bill would make police officers and the general public less safe, but advocates say law abiding citizens should not have to pay for a right guaranteed to them by the Constitution.

It’s a trend in free states!

So now it’s teed up for the Senate.  Don’t the let state down!

Hey Alabama Senate – the Indiana House approved it just like the Alabama House.  It’s clearly supported by the people.  Who will be first, the Indiana senate or the Alabama senate?

Hey South Carolina – aren’t you ashamed now that all you could muster in the last session was open carry (which never should have taken this long to undo)?  Why not constitutional carry?

Dean Weingarten.

The Judiciary Committee was the chosen vehicle used by the Republican majority of senators to kill Constitutional Carry in 2021. The Republican senators had met in caucus and are reported to have used a secret vote to kill Constitutional Carry. They did so with the simple method of never allowing the bill to be debated or voted on in the Judiciary Committee.  The problem for the Republican senators is Constitutional Carry is very popular with their base constituency.

There are 21 states which have Constitutional Carry. It has not been a problem. Homicide rates have not increased. As with all the other reforms which have removed and loosened decades of infringements on the Second Amendment, the “blood in the streets” promised by those who wish to disarm the population, has not materialized.

Dean calls them RINOs.  I don’t use that term.  The two parties are mirror images of one another.

Don’t confuse them with the facts, Dean.  What you said is true.  They’re going after the soccer mom vote, and they know that no one will take the time or make the effort to oust them in the next primary despite what they say.