Concealed weapons bill to take next step forward

COEUR d'ALENE - A new concealed weapons bill will be introduced in the Senate State Affairs Committee today, while the constitutional carry bill is still awaiting a hearing in the House.

Greg Pruett,president of the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance, said his constitutional concealed carry bill may still have a chance for a hearing this session.

"There is a misconception that the two bills are competing," Pruett said. "The chairman (of the House committee) wants to make sure they are not competing before moving forward."

If passed House Bill 89 would allow legal Idaho gun owners to carry concealed weapons without a permit, and requires counties to maintain the enhanced concealed weapons permits for people who need them when they plan to travel to other states.

Pruett said the bill being considered in the Senate, which is sponsored by the National Rifle Association, is for the most part a house-keeping bill that just tightens up some language in the concealed weapons law, and only slightly overlaps with HB 89.

"The NRA representative for this area has confirmed that the bills do not conflict," Pruett said, explaining the NRA bill does change some of the exemption language in the existing law, and HB 89 eliminates the exemptions altogether.

The NRA bill will also clarify what concealed weapons permits allow and what they don't allow.

He doesn't see that as a conflict.

"If both bills pass, they will go to the codifiers," Pruett said, adding the codifiers will reconcile the two bills.

Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, said he learned this week that the bill is not dead in the House State Affairs Committee, on which he sits.

While Barbieri wasn't certain if the bill would get a hearing, he has been told that the bill was going through a vetting process.

"All I know for now is that it is not dead," he said.

Meanwhile, at the federal level, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced on Thursday the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would allow gun owners who have a concealed carry permit in their home state to bring their firearms in any other state with concealed carry laws.

"Our group is not a part of that process yet," Pruett said. "But it will be interesting to watch. The concept is really no different than a driver's license."

The Senate hearing will be streamed live over Idaho Public Television's webpage at: idahoptv.org/insession/leg.cfm.