So far this year, thirteen state legislatures have enacted laws to strengthen the right to keep and bear arms, and none have passed new gun control laws. In every year this century, pro-gun laws have outnumbered anti-gun laws, but this year’s score is particularly lopsided.
A short-term reason is the Clinton-Obama strategy of marketing the Democratic Party as the party of gun control, which has devastated Democratic state legislative candidates. A long-term explanation is the trend that began in the 1980s towards liberalizing gun carrying laws. When doomsday predictions about right to carry do not come true, states that have liberalized their laws look at their own experience, and the experience of other states, and decide that further liberalization is in order.
New Hampshire and North Dakota are the thirteenth and fourteenth states to allow lawful adult gun owners to carry concealed without a permit. People can still obtain a permit if they wish, and in North Dakota, permitees may now carry in a church or other place of worship, if the place so allows.
by David Kopel and Joseph Greenlee