by Today at 2pm CDT, Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE) will sign LB77 making Nebraska the 27th state to adopt unlicensed concealed carry. Gov. Pillen is fulfilling a campaign promise in which he said he would sign the bill if it was presented to him. He will be joined by Sen. Tom Brewer (R-43rd District) who was the primary sponsor of the bill along with other state senators. The signing ceremony will be streamed live on Nebraska Public Media.
Thanks to the efforts of Rob Vance, my long running series of Every Picture Tells A Story has the update which adds Nebraska.
Here are the statistics that accompany the graphic.
| 26.8% | Non-compliant with 2nd Amendment per Bruen (CA,CT,DC,HI,MD,MA,NJ,NY,RI) |
| 0.0% | No Issue |
| 0.0% | May Issue goes away Post-Bruen |
| 30.0% | Shall Issue (CO,DE,IL,LA,MI,MN,NC,NM,NV,OR,PA,SC,VA,WA,WI) |
| 43.2% | Unlicensed concealed carry |
As I noted in a prior post, almost three-fourths of all Americans live in a state where a permit is not required or is shall-issue. If you wanted to do a real deep dive, you could expand the numbers a bit as some counties in California such as Sacramento are de facto shall-issue.
If North and South Carolina were to adopt unlicensed or permitless concealed carry, the percentage would definitely go above 75%. The South Carolina House has passed such a bill and it is now in the SC Senate. Meanwhile in North Carolina, Rep. Keith Kidwell (R-Beaufort, Dare, Hyde, and Pamlico) has introduced HB 189 – NC Constitutional Carry Act. It is now in the House Judiciary 2 Committee.
Of the remaining shall-issue states, it would appear that only Louisiana might pass a permitless carry law. The remaining states are entirely controlled by Democrats, have at least one house of their legislature controlled by Democrats, or have a Democrat as governor.
It’s amazing Oregon is still shall-issue. They’ve been under a Democrat super-majority in both legislative chambers and Democrat-controlled governor’s desk for a long time. And those Democrats running the place seem to have a massive inferiority complex when it comes to imitating their neighbor to the south; it always feels like they’re trying to “out-Left” California.
I half-expect they’ll pass legislation that allows county sheriffs leeway to decide who can get a CHL, making the state officially may-issue (although most rural counties will probably remain shall-issue — if not 2A Sanctuary — by policy).
Oregon is already may issue for non-residents, as long as they live in a bordering state and most of the sheriffs refuse or are extremely restrictive. Oregon has no reciprocity so if you live anywhere other than WA, NV, ID or CA, you are out of luck and even if you live in one of those states, you have to hunt up a sheriff who will actually issue.
Oregon Firearms Federation used to keep recommendations on which county in which to apply; some sheriffs were more willing to grant non-resident licenses than others, and out-of-state applicants can choose which county to apply in. But sadly, they haven’t had any good news in a while.
But for Oregon residents, CHLs are shall-issue by law. Residents have to apply in their county, but the sheriffs have no choice: if the applicant meets all qualifications, they are required to issue a license.
The “bordering state” requirement for non-residents did always strike me as nonsense, though. And reciprocity with other states’ licenses has always, by law, been under the purview of the state Attorney General, and the statute says “may”, so you can guess how often they’ve decided to grant reciprocity.
I will take whatever victory I can but need to remind everyone that concealed carry by constitution or statute is not the only game in town. Many of the shall issue states are attempting to nullify the 2A by other means like gun-free zones or just outright bans. The second probably eventually falls per Bruen and maybe the first. The most lethal attack is probably in CO where they have repealed preemption, making it impossible to know whether are you are complying with the law, permit or not.
In the meantime, three states passed AWB’s and every aspect of every single one of them have been uphold in full by every single judge in every single state.
Expect the Washington ban to be upheld in full by every judge in every court. Even if it goes to the Supreme Court.
Bruen was not the victory we thought it was. Especially since the judges in other courts will simply ignore it. They have every reason to since they despise those Supreme Court justices that ruled in Bruen and want them impeached and executed.
I live in Michigan, and we have shall issue. But we also have for the first time in a long time, a completely Democrat government. I don’t know how, with the botched job the Empress of Lansing and the Corona pandemic made. I blame some of it on the NRA for not having any money to spend here during the midterms, due to their spending it all defending the top dogs from their crimes.
I hope that things change come 2024.