Permitless carry is, at this time, the pinnacle gun rights legislation a state can pass. While I could probably come up with arguments about how sanctuary bills actually are, I still lean toward constitutional carry holding the title. After all, I can also find an argument for an anti-gun state to want to nullify federal rules.

With bills that permit one to carry a firearm without a permit, you essentially reset handgun carry to their constitutional origins–hence it also being called constitutional carry.

In Indiana, a permitless carry bill is much closer to becoming law.

House Bill 1077, which will allow gun owners to carry without a permit, passed the Indiana House Tuesday. The bill now heads to the Senate.

The bill would allow anyone age 18 or older to carry a handgun except for reasons such as having a felony conviction or having a dangerous mental illness.

…

Opponents say there should be a vetting process.

“We will have people walking on our street never vetted by law enforcement, never receiving a background check with loaded firearms around our children,” said Jennifer Haan with Moms Demand Action in Indiana.

Oh, no! Someone might have a gun without asking permission from the police! What will we do!

I mean, it’s not like lawful gun owners didn’t go through background checks when they bought their firearms–after all, most get at least some firearms from a gun store, which is required to perform a background check. No, they just didn’t get the police involved.

“But what about people who bought their guns off the black market?”

Well, what are the odds that people who buy black-market guns are going to get a carry permit before carrying their guns?

See, what anti-Second Amendment types don’t get is that permitless carry does nothing except give law-abiding citizens the ability to carry a gun without jumping through a bunch of hoops that the problem people aren’t going to fool with.

Those bad people are already carrying guns without a permit. You accomplish nothing at all by requiring a permit except making it harder for the good guys to carry.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Indiana has seen a bill like this. A similar permitless carry bill died last year after law enforcement voiced their opposition. Of course, law enforcement always voices opposition, declares this to be a threat to officer safety, then fails to admit they were wrong when such laws go into effect and nothing happens.

Funny how that shakes out, isn’t it?

Now the bill heads to the Senate where, hopefully, it will be passed. Of course, as noted, it failed last year so there are no guarantees on anything. However, 21 other states have passed constitutional carry and they have had little issue. Hell, even amid a surge in violent crime, it’s likely that constitutional carry helped Dallas see a decrease in the murder rate.

Unfortunately, we have to take a wait-and-see approach to find out if Indiana becomes the 22nd permitless carry state in the nation or not.