Indiana Lawmakers Again Urged to Keep Gun License Requirement

A top Indiana prosecutor. A law professor. And a mother whose son was shot and gravely injured at the age of 13 while attending a friend’s birthday party.

These were among the list of speakers at a State Capitol hearing Thursday urging Indiana lawmakers not to eliminate the state’s handgun carry license requirement. Like the vast majority of states, Indiana requires people to pass a criminal background check and obtain a license in order to carry a concealed handgun in public. Ending this requirement would allow people with dangerous histories – including violent and emotionally unstable people, certain weapons offenders and alcohol and drug abusers – to carry loaded handguns in public.

Last month, at the first study committee hearing on the proposal to eliminate the license requirement, leaders of top Indiana law enforcement groups urged lawmakers to keep the requirement in place.

And on Thursday, Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry added his voice as well. “We believe the permitting requirement should remain,” Curry said.

To read more about Thursday’s hearing, please see coverage here, here, here, here and here.

Editorial boards across Indiana – including at The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, the South Bend Tribune, the Bloomington Herald-Times and the Kokomo Tribune – have also urged lawmakers in recent weeks to keep the license requirement in place.

Law enforcement groups have opposed permitless carry in other states that have considered it, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Missouri. Of the 28 states that have considered permitless carry this year, 20 states have rejected such legislation and only two have enacted it. Permitless carry bills remain pending in six states.

A fact sheet about permitless carry is available here. Please feel free to reach out with any questions.

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