SD to allow legal resident non-citizens concealed carry permit

[RamboLiberal]

PIERRE -- A bill to allow legal resident non-citizens to receive concealed carry permits for guns is on its way to Gov. Dennis Daugaard.

House Bill 1149 passed the Senate 33-1 after previously clearing the House 66-2.

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_ad97c532-4474-11e0-861d-001cc4c03286.html

Back in January I argued with a PA talk show host on this issue in SD that is should be allowed. That legal non-residents have just as much right as citizens to defend themselves & that many times they are engaged in jobs like convenience stores, carryout delivery, taxi drivers, etc. that put them in danger.

[old mark]

1. K&R- It only makes sense... some people will hate it...nt

[RamboLiberal]

2. ACLU fought for this right

From 2 weeks ago:

A federal judge ruled in favor of Wayne Smith, a Sioux Falls resident and British national, who was denied a permit in Minnehaha County.

The American Civil Liberties Union in South Dakota sued the state on Smith's behalf, arguing that the law violated the Fourteenth Amendment's protection clause in his case.

Part of the concern with allowing legal residents to get a concealed weapons permit is that sheriff's departments have difficulty gathering valid criminal background information on foreign nationals.

Jackley said the amendment to the bill passed Monday addresses that concern. It requires sheriffs' departments to run applicants through the INTERPOL database to search for a criminal history.

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_b0ba70d6-391e-11e0-9567-001cc4c03286.html

A British national living in Sioux Falls has won the right to obtain a concealed weapons permit in Minnehaha County after being denied last year because of his citizenship status.

Wayne Smith, who immigrated to the United States in 1979 when he was 15, was granted a preliminary and permanent injunction by U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier.

She ruled that county sheriffs can't deny Smith a concealed weapons permit based on the state's citizenship requirement. Smith, who is not a U.S. citizen but has legal permanent residency status, applied for a permit last July but was denied.

He previously had been issued permits four times, including once in Lincoln County. When he reapplied for a permit in Minnehaha County, however, the sheriff's department denied the request.

http://www.argusleader.com/article/20110210/NEWS/102100339/1001/news/Weapons-permit-Briton-approved

Judge nominated by President Clinton.

http://judgepedia.org/index.php/Karen_Schreier

[old mark]

3. Yes- I am glad the ACLU is taking 2A issues seriously now, after so many years of ignoring them....n

[Euromutt]

5. I don't know if I'd say that

After all, the ACLU did note they regarded it as a 14th Amendment issue, not a 2nd Amendment one; it wasn't about the fact that Smith couldn't get a CCW permit, but that he couldn't when others could.

But it does have to be acknowledged that the ACLU is increasingly less afraid of wading into a civil liberties issue when it involves guns, even when it's not fundamentally about guns (e.g. an unreasonable search and seizure, in which a firearm happened to be seized; an individual having firearms confiscated without observance of due process, etc.).

[old mark]

7. Yes-they would flatly avoid this in the past....maybe they are getting better...nt

[AtheistCrusader]

4. Bout time. Then again, it took us (WA) 9 years to fix our Alien Firearm Permit

after everyone went 'OH SHIT FURRINERS WITH GUNZ!' after 9/11, and they cut the system off completely.

[Euromutt]

6. That's not quite what happened

What stopped the approval of Alien Firearms Licenses was the FBI deciding that the CFR prohibited it from performing background checks for non-law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, AFLs were administered by the Washington state Dept. of Licensing, which in the FBI's book is not a law enforcement agency, so the FBI stopped doing background checks. That's what cut off the system, and that happened in 2007 or 2008, IIRC, long after 9/11.

Still, good riddance; the AFL was completely redundant because you need to have a clean criminal record in your country of origin to immigrate to the United States in the first place. The fact that you have permanent residency in the first place should have satisfied the criteria for an AFL, and it was completely fucking ridiculous that it didn't.

[Hoopla Phil]

8. Good. That's the way it has always been in Texas.

Not an issue so far.