Chris Cox (NRA photo)
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Legislation that will allow Idaho residents age 21 and over to legally carry concealed sidearms without a permit within city limits has been signed by Gov. Butch Otter.
Both the National Rifle Association and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms had supported SB 1389, which also makes it possible for residents aged 18 and over to obtain concealed weapons licenses.
Carry without a permit outside of city limits in the Gem State. Open carry is also legal in Idaho, and activists are calling this another win for so-called “constitutional carry.”
Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, called it a “great day for law-abiding gun owners in Idaho.”
“Now, the residents of Idaho can choose what method of self-defense suits them best no matter where they are in the state,” he said in a statement to the press.
Likewise, CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, observed, “Gov. Otter not only did the right thing for the gun owners in his state, he also sent a message that the gun prohibition lobby led by anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety can’t bully the Legislature or buy enough advertising to bamboozle Idaho citizens. They may have gotten away with that strategy in neighboring states, but not Idaho.”
Alan Gottlieb
Gottlieb was alluding to Washington and Oregon, where Bloomberg-backed groups have managed to push through gun control measures over the past two years. In Washington, Initiative 594 was passed after Bloomberg and Puget Sound-area billionaires spent more than $10 million on a campaign in 2014. Both NRA and CCRKBA opposed the initiative, which require so-called “universal background checks” on firearms transactions, including private sales and loans.
A recent report by KING5 News, the local NBC affiliate in Seattle, revealed that in the 15 months following the initiative’s passage, only 50 private transfers had been blocked by the new law. It does not appear anyone has been charged or convicted for violating the law, nor does it appear that any law enforcement agency is actively enforcing it.
“Once again the people have rejected Bloomberg’s gun-control agenda,” Cox observed. “It’s clear that Idahoans respect their Second Amendment rights and saw right through Bloomberg’s lies. The people of Idaho are safer today.”
The state Senate passed the measure 27-8 and the House passed it 54-15.
“It is always good to remind the gun control crowd that there are still parts of the country where their agenda gets no traction,” Gottlieb said. “The rights of law-abiding citizens are not up for sale, despite what gun prohibitionists might think.”
Both gun rights organizations noted that anti-gunners invested thousands of dollars and lots of effort in attempts to defeat the legislation. Passage of the bill amounts to a resounding defeat for the gun prohibition lobby in the Pacific Northwest.
