Best State For Gun Rights

Minnesota has a pretty well written Carry Law. One can have as much as .04% BAC and still be legal to carry (although it's frowned upon by most permits to carry holders. ) Pretty much, in MN, one can carry pretty much anywhere, except court houses, jails. One can even carry at the Capitol, with the proper paperwork submitted. Places that are posted can only file trespass charges at a maximum. In MN, one can open carry, should they want, as long as they have their permit. Permits to purchase a handgun are required.

In that vein, Texas CHL laws seem to suck.

Yes, Florida is one of the BEST.

Florida led the nation by passing what may very well be the finest Castle Doctrine law in the entire country:

"The Florida "Castle Doctrine" law basically does three things:

One: It establishes, in law, the presumption that a criminal who forcibly enters or intrudes into your home or occupied vehicle is there to cause death or great bodily harm, therefore a person may use any manner of force, including deadly force, against that person.

Two: It removes the "duty to retreat" if you are attacked in any place you have a right to be. You no longer have to turn your back on a criminal and try to run when attacked. Instead, you may stand your ground and fight back, meeting force with force, including deadly force, if you reasonably believe it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to yourself or others. [This is an American right repeatedly recognized in Supreme Court gun cases.]

Three: It provides that persons using force authorized by law shall not be prosecuted for using such force.

It also prohibits criminals and their families from suing victims for injuring or killing the criminals who have attacked them.

In short, it gives rights back to law-abiding people and forces judges and prosecutors who are prone to coddling criminals to instead focus on protecting victims."

http://www.gunlaws.com/FloridaCastleDoctrine.htm

Florida also has an excellent concealed carry law, having reciprocity agreements with at least 32 other states as of January, 2008.

Also, in many states a concealed carry license only gives you the right to carry a handgun concealed. Whereas the Florida law authorizes you to also carry weapons such as billy clubs, knives and stun guns.

http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/news/concealed_carry.html

Arizona is excellent with open carry, easy to obtain CCW, easy NFA signoff, etc, etc. My only complaint is no carry where alcohol is served.

I'd rank WY and MT up very high due to their favorable laws and ease of firearms purchase. Colorado is lower on the list due to the exhaustive Colorado Bureau of Investigations firearms purchase background check in spite of our ability to carry in bars.

I do like FL's CHL since it has the greatest reciprocity compared the states in my stomping ground.

Yes I do. I also know I can carry in more places in Florida with my Georgia licence than I can carry in Georgia.

What is a public gathering? When someone figures that out, they really need to let GA permit holders know.

Georgia is not the worst place for gun, but it is probably the worst (or at least in the top two) Southern state for guns.

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Georgia is hardly the worst Southern state for guns. The nebulous "public gathering" clause leaves some room for abuse, but the courts general limit it to the items specifically outlined in the statute (I know the statute says it's not limited to those places). Unlike Alabama, North Carolina, arguably South Carolina, Tennessee, or Arkansas, Georgians can carry a concealed firearm in their cars without a permit. We're shall-issue, unlike Alabama (say whatever you want, the sheriff can still deny you on a whim). We don't have to have purchase permits for handguns, like North Carolina. There are no NFA restrictions, like Alabama (SBR/SBS), Florida (DD), or Mississippi (Sup.). While not permitless like Kentucky and Virginia, Georgia dose allow open carry, unlike Florida or South Carolina. And we don't have silly one-gun-a-month laws like Virginia. If it wasn't for the "public gathering" clause (which most localities are under pressure to interpret quite narrowly) we'd be the best state in the South for gun laws except for perhaps Kentucky. It ain't Vermont, but it's pretty darn good here for us Georgians, and the weather is a lot better than VT, AK, MT, or WY.

VA is a pretty sweet deal. But then again I came from the northeast, NY/NJ so anything that allows me to buy a gun without a firearms ID card and having to go to my local LEO to ask permission to buy a handgun is a sweet deal to me. In upstate NY where I use to live, if I wanted a handgun, I had to go to the local sheriff's office, get the application, and have 4 people (non-relatives) give a character background summary about me. The LE chief could say Yay or Nay for whatever reason.

In northern NJ, to buy a handgun, you had to first get a firearm ID card, then go to your local LE station and ask the chief for permission to buy one, then if he/she said yes, you had to go through the hassle of the forms and wait several months. I left in 1998 so I don't know if things got better and or if this applied to all of NJ.

Plus on top of all that, both states limit mag capacity, for both long guns and handguns. VA has unlimited mag capacity (as long as you don't violate the federal regs) and we can buy NFA items without much fuss as well.

I think that states that allow OC but have snow on the ground for 11 months out of the year, requiring a cover garment, should be eliminated from consideration. (Mont, Wy, ND.....)

I'm considering migrating south on retirement, and of the two Carolina's I think South Carolina is better but sure would like to hear it from a resident>

KKKKFL

I think that states that allow OC but have snow on the ground for 11 months out of the year, requiring a cover garment, should be eliminated from consideration. (Mont, Wy, ND.....)

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Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe ND only allows open carry if you have a CWP.

Quite an irony I know, but that's the law as far as I've read and have been lead to believe.

delete.

Wyoming is terrible and way too cold. Stay away

Go to the Brady Bunch website. The states with the lowest scores win.

I'm considering migrating south on retirement, and of the two Carolina's I think South Carolina is better but sure would like to hear it from a resident>

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Take all this with a grain of salt since I'm a refuge from the north so maybe I'm biased now that I'm in a state that doesn't treat me like a pariah for wanting to exercise my rights.

SC is pretty good. Carry in your car ("one step rule," i.e. the firearm must be one step away to access like a glovebox, etc) without a permit. CCW is shall issue, and the class is fairly well done and can be completed in a day. We also have a very good castle doctorine that covers home, business and auto.

Only negatives are no carry in establishments that serve alcohol, and when they say it's 90 days to get your CCW permit once you mail everything, it really is 90 days. They cashed my check within about 5 days of mailing, and I think I got the permit around 92 days after mailing everything.

NC has a purchase permit requirement for a handgun (Jim Crow remnant) but that goes away if you have a CCW. NC also has pretty bad duty to retreat laws and I think the Class III stuff has a couple of extra hoops to jump through.

Come on down to SC, you'll like it here. Just don't tell anyone else

The two worst scoring states on the last Brady Report Cards were KY and OK. Although, I must admit the Alaska and Vermont laws certainly make me jealous.

i personly would not open carry,so i wasn't even considering it when weighing the pros and cons.as far as bars and ccw, i think thats a reasonable restriction.the catagorys i find most important are the laws concerning the right to cc,the right to defend yourself whenever neccessary and the right to go to prison forever if you use a firearm in a crime.

Vermont is still a great state for the RKBA but it is not perfect. First sound suppressors are illegal, then there are some restrictions on hunting. Plenty of No Hunting signs on private property especially int the southern part of the state. Also the populous tends to be pretty anti-gun. The old Yankees have long since died. The new people moving into the state happen to be Liberal anti-gun types from the NY Metro area.

Wyoming - fireworks available year round, no state income tax, and if you don't mind living in the plains portion of the state, land is extremely cheap!

MT is ok, but no DD's up here and you can't carry into any place that alcohol is served (which is 90% of restaurants).

Posted by Slappy McGee:
NC has a purchase permit requirement for a handgun (Jim Crow remnant) but that goes away if you have a CCW. NC also has pretty bad duty to retreat laws and I think the Class III stuff has a couple of extra hoops to jump through.

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NC's duty to retreat law isn't bad.

"§ 14‑51.1. Use of deadly physical force against an intruder.

(a) A lawful occupant within a home or other place of residence is justified in using any degree of force that the occupant reasonably believes is necessary, including deadly force, against an intruder to prevent a forcible entry into the home or residence or to terminate the intruder's unlawful entry (i) if the occupant reasonably apprehends that the intruder may kill or inflict serious bodily harm to the occupant or others in the home or residence, or (ii) if the occupant reasonably believes that the intruder intends to commit a felony in the home or residence.

(b) A lawful occupant within a home or other place of residence does not have a duty to retreat from an intruder in the circumstances described in this section.

(c) This section is not intended to repeal, expand, or limit any other defense that may exist under the common law. (1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 673, s. 1.)"

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_14/GS_14-51.1.html

To Outerlmit

Wow! Have you missed your VA appointment this month?

Utah has to be pretty high on the list. Lots of pro-gun people, laws, and politicians.

I like Utah...