In one month a law will take effect in Mississippi that has many law enforcement officers, business owners and regular people confused.
House Bill 2, a bill meant to clarify Mississippi’s concealed carry gun laws, defines the word concealed and in doing so says it shall not include weapons being carried upon a person in a sheath, belt holster or shoulder holster that is wholly or partially visible.
Seems clear enough. Bad law was being used to suppress constitutional rights. It has been corrected.
Gun rights advocates have taken to campaigning for and embracing a new open carry movement. One group in Corinth is hosting an open carry, empty chamber day at Corinth City Park on July 6 once the law goes into affect.
Many law enforcement officials have expressed concern that this will bring more weapons into play in their everyday duties, increasing their call volume and confusion at crime scenes.
House Bill 2 author, Rep. Andy Gipson, R- Braxton, said Mississippi has always been an open carry state and the campaigning and worry is much to do about nothing.
“Nothing the Legislature did or could do changed Article 3, Section 12 of the Mississippi Constitution of 1980,” Gipson said.
The article says that the state can regulate or forbid the carrying of concealed weapons but no law can call into question the right of every citizen to, “keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person or property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned...”
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