notalawyer
Regular Member
Do not, please, Please, PLEASE, DO NOT submit the bill with that wording. It makes the mere open carry of a firearm RAS of a crime. The way you should write the bill is something akin to " No person shall openly carry a handgun/rifle/40-megawatt laser unless such person has a valid weapon's carry license issued...."
The difference, and it's not mere quibbling, is that the first gives RAS upon the mere discovery that a firearm is being carried while the second requires RAS that a person is unlicensed. The second is also the way many/most state laws are written in regards to licensing and automobiles. It's the absence of a license not the driving of a car that is illegal.
If I may blow my own state's horn, I think Georgia has a marvelously well crafted law on the subject:
1) It matches nearly word for word the traffic code regarding licenses. Makes it super easy for an officer; if he can remember one, he can remember both without confusion.
2) It provides the exact same penalty for not having a weapon license in one's possession as does the traffic code for not having a driving license
3) In contrast to the traffic code, is prohibits an individual from being detained merely because an officer sees a firearm and wants to investigate that person without RAS.
That's the law as it exists today.
I'm assuming the plan is to re-write 790.053 (and make other appropriate housekeeping updates to other statutes that reference it) to include the wording we just added to 790.01 - making the absence of a CWFL an element of the crime as opposed to an affirmative defense.
Then change 790.06 (the concealed license statute) to simply remove he word 'concealed'.
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