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Utah, Florida help non-residents pack guns

Why two states' permits are such hot tickets for concealed-carry crowd

	Utah firearms expert W. Clark Aposhian: "We don't just deny a permit based on a subjective line in the dirt where a border is."  View related photos

By Mike Stuckey

Senior news editor

msnbc.com

updated 2 hours, 46 minutes ago

The one-third or so of American adults who can't obtain permits to carry concealed weapons from their home states need only look to Florida and Utah — and their mailboxes — to legally carry hidden guns.

Because both states grant concealed-carry permits to non-residents and have reciprocal agreements with other states under which their permits are recognized, possession of a Utah or Florida permit gives non-residents the right to carry hidden firearms in as many as 32 other states — though often not the one in which they live.

Tens of thousands of gun owners have obtained the non-resident permits, and their numbers are surging.

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That has helped fuel the larger debate over concealed-carry permits. Gun-rights activists say Americans who pack heat to defend themselves are exercising a legitimate right and have helped reduce the nation's crime rate. Gun-control advocates say that there's no proof that gun-toting civilians make the streets any safer and that looser concealed-carry laws are a recipe for disaster.

As the debate continues, the Utah and Florida permits are becoming ever-hotter tickets for out-of-state gun owners.

"Protect your family when traveling!" shouts a headline on one of dozens of Web sites that offer training and help with the paperwork to obtain the Utah and Florida permits. "You don't have to be a resident of Utah or Florida!"

The non-resident permits are roundly criticized by gun-control advocates, who see the states that issue them as tools of groups like the National Rifle Association.

INTERACTIVE Going For Their Guns See which states offer "shall issue" concealed-weapons permits; "may issue" and "no issue" states also are shown.

"I think the reason states are doing this, especially Florida, is the sheer power of the gun lobby in those state legislatures," said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, which seeks a ban on private ownership of all handguns. "It's not a question of what is in a state's interest, but what is in the gun lobby and gun industry's interest."

But NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam called non-resident permits an "organic" solution to needlessly restrictive state gun laws.

"There are people in all these states that are trying to get right-to-carry permits and are not able to," he said. "As a result, they're forced to explore other avenues. The solution to that would be for as many states as possible to have a 'shall-issue' permit system," which allows most adults to obtain concealed-carry permits on demand.

Big increases in two states
The popularity of non-resident licenses with gun owners from heavily populated states like California and New York, which do not have "shall-issue" systems, has helped fuel big increases in both Utah and Florida's concealed-carry permit numbers. That in turn has contributed to the nation's fivefold increase in concealed-weapons permits, from fewer than 1 million in the 1980s to an estimated 6 million today.

In Florida, the number of new and renewal applicants for concealed-carry permits from out of state increased 529 percent — from 2,703 to 17,003 — from 1999 to 2009, compared with a 145 percent increase in applications from residents of the Sunshine State over the same period.

Florida is on a pace to grant new and renewed permits to about 25,000 out-of-state residents in the current fiscal year. Of 692,621 current Florida concealed-carry license holders, 71,059, or more than one in 10, are not state residents.

Over the past 10 years, the number of concealed-carry permits issued by Utah has surged 431 percent, from 40,363 to 214,403, a figure that would represent nearly 8 percent of the state's population. But more than half the permits now go to non-Utah residents, up from just 12 percent a decade ago. Of the 1,011 instructors authorized by Utah to teach its concealed-carry license class, 641 live out of state — 100 in California alone — while 370 are Utah residents.

Both states require applicants to undergo background checks and submit to fingerprinting. Florida requires proof of firearms training that can be satisfied in a number of ways; Utah requires applicants to take a four-hour class on gun-safety and legal issues taught by a state-certified instructor. The Florida license costs $117 and is good for seven years. Utah charges $65.25 for a five-year permit.

The time and expense are well worth it to gun owners who want to pack their pistols in as many places as they legally can. Non-resident Florida licenses are good in 30 other states and non-resident Utah licenses are honored in 29 other states. The reciprocating states largely overlap, but there are a few differences. By obtaining both, for example, a resident of Illinois, which does not grant concealed-gun licenses to civilians, could legally carry in 32 states outside of his or her own, including the neighboring states of Missouri, Indiana and Kentucky.