Lock 'n' load, Arizona. A state Senate panel has approved a measure that would allow any adult in Arizona to carry a concealed weapon without a background check or Department of Public Safety mandated training.
Yippie ki-yay!
The bill, SB 1102, was introduced by the Senate's resident red-neck, Senator Russell Pearce, and would give anyone with a gun permit the right to conceal their weapon, as opposed to having it be completely visible, as legally required now in the state.
The current law requires anyone who wants a Concealed Carry Weapons permit to go through a background check and up to eight hours of safety training on stuff like marksmanship and when deadly force can be used.
The course and the background check would be a thing of the past if the bill becomes law.
Sound a little bit like the Wild West? The Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police thinks so.
"SB 1102, if enacted into law, will take Arizona back to the Wild West carry (laws), with no consideration of officer safety,'' AACP spokesman John Thomas tells the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senator Pearce, on the other hand, apparently thinks that arming citizens to the teeth is not only an asset but a Constitutional requirement.
"I've never been afraid of a good citizen being armed," Pearce tells Capitol Media Services. "In fact, our Founding Fathers expected it and demanded it."
We've got a feeling that if the Founding Fathers could've met Russell Pearce, they would've reconsidered that section of the Bill of Rights.
