Arkansas Lawmakers Ask For AG Opinion On Open Carry
by June 10, 2015 2:42 pm 90 views
Jacob Kauffman with our content partner, KUAR FM 89.1 News, reports:
A trio of Arkansas legislators officially requested an advisory opinion from Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on Wednesday as to whether or not a 2013 law allows for the open carry of firearms. The move comes as a string of local law enforcement agencies across the state have announced differing interpretations of what is legal. And after comments from Republican leaders, including Rutledge, that open carry is legal.
Representative Nate Bell, an Independent from Mena, helped lead the charge.
“A lot of law enforcement agencies are being asked to make decisions. There’s a lot of public pressure for the process to speed up. Several of us felt like it was best to go ahead and get an opinion request out there even though they’re not legally binding. They do offer some guidance to the law enforcement community. A few of them seem to be confused,” said Bell.
Representative Bell said the request to the Republican attorney general comes after a period of hesitation.
“I’ve actually encouraged other legislators to hold and to wait to file this opinion request because there are some cases in litigation. I would personally have preferred that we had the results of that litigation prior to requesting an AG opinion,” said Bell.
The last official attorney general opinion, from former Democratic AG Dustin McDaniel, found the 2013 law did not legalize open carry. The State Police follow that guidance. Some legislators that passed bill in 2013 have said they didn’t understand legalizing open carry as the intent of the legislation at the time.
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