Salt Lake City, UT — As of this year, Utah and Montana are joining 16 other Constitutional Carry states.
Constitutional Carry is the concept where lawful individuals are able to legally carry a firearm, open or concealed, without the need for a government-issued permit.
In Utah, State Representative Walter Brooks introduced House Bill 60, “Constitutional Carry.” The bill sailed through the Utah State Legislature, passing 51-20 in the House and 23-6 in the Senate. Those were veto-proof majorities in both chambers.
The push for Constitutional Carry in Utah has been ongoing for a few years.
A similar measure passed the Utah House and Senate in 2015 but was vetoed by then-Governor Gary Herbert. Although Herbert is registered as a Republican, he sided with gun-control groups to shut down Constitutional Carry legislation.
Term-limited, Governor Herbert was succeeded by now-Governor Spencer Cox.
On the campaign trail, Cox promised that he would sign Constitutional Carry legislation that made it to his desk. Rep. Walter Brooks and Sen. David Hinkins gave Cox the bill, and Cox followed through on that promise.
House Bill 60 goes into effect on May 5.
Montana’s Constitutional Carry bill had a bumpier road to the Governor’s desk.
House Bill 102, sponsored by Representative Seth Berglee, which was originally a clean Constitutional Carry bill, was quickly amended with multiple anti-gun amendments. Among these were bans on carrying in restaurants and on college campuses.
While the National Rifle Association and the Montana Shooting Sports Association were willing to make these compromises, the no-compromise National Association for Gun Rights fought on both of these measures.
NAGR successfully forced an amendment to reinstate restaurant carry, but some of the other anti-gun measures were retained on final passage.
Like Utah, the Montana Constitutional Carry effort found new hope with a new governor, Governor Greg Gianforte.
Gianforte staked his claim in the Governor’s race as the pro-gun option. Gianforte’s record in Congress showed that he meant business when it came to the Second Amendment.
The new Governor made clear that Constitutional Carry was a top priority for his administration.
Although Gianforte signed Montana’s Constitutional Carry bill after Cox, Montana’s bill took effect immediately (last week).
Montana Rep. Scot Kerns, with the backing of the National Association for Gun Rights, has already introduced a Constitutional Carry bill, House Bill 436, to fix the anti-gun leftovers from House Bill 102. House Bill 436 is scheduled for a committee hearing in the House this week and may have a chance to land on Gov. Gianforte’s desk this year.
Montana and Utah now join Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
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Come on Texas. We are a constitutional carry state.
Constitutional carry should be law in all states and US territories. The commiecrats infringing on our rights should not have security protection and still tell us to call 911. Most of the time the police arrives in time to draw a shape of the victims with chalk.
The 2nd Amendment is as clear and concise today as it was when ratified in 1791. It was proposed by James Madison to allow the creation of civilian forces to counteract a tyrannical federal government. “Keep and bear” means today what it did back then. Constitutional carry laws simply put an exclamation point on the term “bear” which means to have on one’s person. Only an illiterate would misconstrue it.