Don’t forget about the rally with Larry Pratt (Gun Owners of America), Russ Fulcher (Former Idaho Senator), Wayne Hoffman (IFF), and ISAA President Greg Pruett on February 20th, 2016. Details are available on the Facebook Event page.

The 2016 Idaho Legislative Session has begun and already the anxiety and tension around Permitless Carry has begun. When will the bill be introduced? Who are the sponsors? What will the bill do? Will the “secret gun committee” kill it again? We are getting these questions from citizens all over the State of Idaho on a daily basis.

These are all great questions and in politics of course there are never any easy answers. There is a lot at play and as simple as this should be, politics make it much more difficult. That being said, you must be ready to demand the best from your legislators.

Here is what Permitless Carry should look like and you should accept NOTHING LESS:

1. It must be a clean bill. That means that the ONLY purpose of the bill must be to pass Permitless Carry. No amendments can added that take away from what the bill is meant to do. Politicians are great at compromising your rights away in order to get something they want. A bill about Permitless Carry might suddenly raise fees on permits, raise taxes for transportation, or some other amendment designed to water down the impact of the original legislation or add something completely unaffiliated with it. Don’t let that happen!
2. As a first step, the Permitless Carry bill will likely need to keep current restrictions in place. While we don’t necessarily agree with some of the current restrictions, a best first step is to just pass the bill cleanly without battles over other issues. This falls in line with our first bullet point.
3. There should be NO government power expansion. Politicians often like to expand government power or make it so the original intent of the bill is compromised. No amendments can be added (see bullet point 1) that undermine the message of the bill. In this case, your right to keep AND BEAR (that means you carry it) arms is not infringed and no restrictions are put on that other than those currently prescribed by law. Amendments to undermine that intent or amendments that will give the government even more power over your 2nd Amendment rights cannot be tolerated. This may be in the form of “mandatory training requirements” for Permitless Carry. Doesn’t make sense right? Some outside entities may try and push this type of amendment to kill Permitless Carry.

We are ready to support Rep. Heather Scott and Rep. Ron Nate. We trust that they have come up with a bill that expands freedom and does not expand government power. Their wording should be similar to what House Bill 89 was last year.

No secret committees. No watered down or government power amendments. No more games. It is time to pass Permitless Carry in Idaho!