Alaska ahead of game with permits

I was talking with a good friend the other day about fishing and a project I’m doing in my yard in which he is actually the major laborer.

He happened to mention that he was taking a concealed carry class and was amazed at the knowledge a permit holder must have in order to properly comply with Alaska’s laws.

He mentioned that he needs to demonstrate shooting proficiency with his handgun before his permit would be issued.

This knowledge involved where the concealed firearm could be carried and the circumstances where either displaying the weapon or actually using it was justifiable. The legal lecture his class received was several hours long and presented by an attorney who has worked as a prosecuting attorney for the state.

Once my friend is finished with the class, he will need to fill out an application form and submit both a set of fingerprints and a passport-type photo for the processing of his permit. The state will use the fingerprints and application to run a criminal background check, which must be passed or the permit will not be issued.

My friend is not interested in having the permit for local concealed carry because that is already allowed without a permit by law-abiding Alaska residents. He was looking down the road toward making a trip or two Outside and wanted to be able to carry concealed in whatever state he might choose to visit.

I’ve had my own concealed carry permit (CCP) for 12 years or so. I originally got mine to carry concealed, but when the Legislature eliminated the permit requirement for Alaska residents legally qualified to possess a handgun, I really didn’t need it for local carry. If you have a NICS exempt CCP, you can purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer and not have to undergo the standard background check.

That’s the permit I had and wanted to keep, but apparently the state and the feds couldn’t reach or maintain an agreement to continue that level of background check for permit holders. Now the state only issues CCPs that require a standard FBI background check before the firearm can be transferred from the dealer to the permit holder. However, since I also have a federal firearm’s license (FFL), I can buy a gun through my license and not have to go through the background check because that was done when the FFL was issued.

This past week, the U.S. Senate voted on an amendment that would have granted reciprocity between states for the holders of any state’s CCP — similar to how one state honors another state’s driver license. This was exactly why my friend was getting his Alaska CCP. The amendment was defeated.

The final vote was 58 for and 39 against. In order to pass, the amendment needed 60 votes in favor. Twenty Democrats crossed over and voted for the amendment while two Republican senators voted against it. I’m happy to report that both of our Alaska senators voted to support this amendment.

When I was reading about what happened on the MSNBC Web site, I was disturbed by two statements in the so-called news report published July 22. First, “Congress this year voted to restore the rights of people to carry loaded weapons into national parks and …” — here’s a news flash for the reporter — government does not restore citizens’ rights; government restores privileges. That’s an important distinction.

Rights are granted by God and government’s job is to protect those rights.

Go read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Government grants privileges, like a driver license or a hunting license. Government can take away privileges or restore them, but government does not have the standing to remove or restore rights.

The second point the reporter screwed up was in the statement: “… some such as Alaska and Vermont, give permits to almost all gun owners. Others, such as New York, have firearm training requirements and exclude people with drinking problems or criminal records.”

A pet peeve of mine which I routinely find in both print and broadcast news reports regarding outdoor stories and especially when discussing firearms is that the reporter doesn’t know what he/she is talking about.

This is another example of a reporter not researching his facts. Go back and reread the first three paragraphs of this column and then tell me Alaska has no requirement regarding proper firearms handling, or that Alaska hands out CCPs to people with criminal records.

All is not lost because this amendment failed to pass. Currently, 48 states have some form of concealed carry in statute. Alaska has already established a reciprocity agreement with 34 of those states where the CCPs issued by either state are recognized by the other. Illinois and Wisconsin have no CCP provisions and refuse to recognize any state’s CCP.

The other states that do not honor Alaska’s CCP are predominantly located on the two Left Coasts, the one adjoining the Pacific Ocean and the other one on the Atlantic Ocean side of the country.

People will carry weapons. Wouldn’t you rather have the law-abiding ones do the carrying?

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by e-mailing sports@frontiersman.com.