An early (posted, sigh) version of my gun-in-your-car-at-work piece that omitted the "at work" in the lede prompted a comment wondering aloud at gun-friendly Indiana being so bad about guns in your car.
Such wonderment is not off-base. Indiana is simultaneously very good and kinda bad when it comes to guns. "Sawed-off" shotguns aside,* you can own anything you can afford, as long as you pass a Federal NICS check. If you're not a criminal, the shall-issue License To Carry Handgun does not have difficult qualifications or high fees and you can even get a lifetime version.
However.... You will be really, really wanting that LTCH, for without it, you may only be carrying your handgun outside your own property if it is unloaded, "in a secure wrapper" and for the purposes of sale, trade or service; otherwise, you're in trouble, possibly committing a felony. If the range you frequent includes a gun store or better yet, a gunsmith and the officer's not inclined to press the point, you're in good shape; but you're rolling the dice.
It's an old law; the original "carry permit" dates back to the 1930s, with a number of revisions and improvements through the years. I will not be surprised if there's a lot of semi-hysterical and largely, generally ignorantly, misleading press coverage around the first of July. A little knowledge of the basics might help folks make sense of it all -- and recognize when they're being lied to.
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* It's John Dillinger's fault, the rotten so-and-so.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
4 comments:
Actually, carry permits are holdovers of the "Jim Crow" laws and were intended to deny weapons to minorities. These days, minorities seem to be anyone not politically connected or working for some government agency.
So, my Missouri CCW allows me to have loaded weapons on me and in my car in Indiana? I see that both states have reciprocity.
Good!
Traversing Illinois however...
WV: holytx Is that "Holy Taxes or Holy Texas?"
Does the Hunting and Target permit still exist in Indiana? If I remember right, the only difference in eligibility criteria was the willingness to pay an extra $9--and all you got was transport to and during hunting and target shooting.
It still exists, but very few get it; there's a tick box now for which one you want -- in the bad old days, a poorly-worded entry on the form could result in getting it by mistake!
The most recent streamlining eliminated most of the goofy stuff on the form, allowed handwritten entries, and did away (AFAIR) with the need to get it notarized...thereby eliminating a minor source of income for the bail bondsmen with offices near the City-County Building, who used to do the typing and notarization for a nominal fee.
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