Paul Allen of the Tucson Citizen writes on a strange loophole (h/t: Uncly Wuncly) in Arizona law that allows Arizona residents who fail to qualify for concealed weapons permits under the laws of their own state to rely on a more easily obtained Utah permit, instead. On this topic, Mr. Allen quotes Dept. of Public Safety spokesman Bill Whalen as saying:

“There are about 1,000 Arizona residents who have Utah concealed weapon permits.” said Sgt. Bill Whalen, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety’s concealed weapon permit system. Arizona has 68,538 holders of its own permits, he said.

It’s probably a safe bet that at least some of the Zonies who hold Utah permits also hold Arizona permits, but it’s equally safe bet that some do not. Let’s assume that up to 1,000 do not. Is that a problem?

“The department basically is concerned about Arizona residents who have been denied a permit here getting a Utah permit and then coming back here, circumventing the system. “We are aware of that having occurred. I can think of at least four off the top of my head. They can carry concealed because of our reciprocity agreement.”

OK, but are these guys who have actually done anything? Or is Whalen just mad because those cheap bastards paid a lower fee to Utah than they would have paid to his state? He alludes to the possibility of some bad apples, without actually coming out and saying that any of Arizona’s 1,000 loophole-exploiters are among them:

“They will accept felons that have had their convictions sealed, expunged or were nonviolent and more than 5 years old.”

Translated: permit, schmermit. Under A.R.S. § 13-3112(V), they cannot lawfully carry in Arizona, period. That statute provides:

Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, a person with a concealed weapons permit from another state may not carry a concealed weapon in this state if the person is under twenty-one years of age or is under indictment for, or has been convicted of, a felony offense in any jurisdiction, even if the person’s rights have been restored and the conviction is expunged, set aside or vacated.

So clearly, Mr. Whalen is wrong to say prohibited persons with Utah permits may carry in Arizona. They can’t. His loophole does exist, but applies only to cheap bastards who don’t want to pay Arizona’s higher fee, lazy bastards who want a shorter training course, or other assorted bastards over teh age of 21 and with a clean record. Judging by his statements, however, Whalen implies that his agency does not enforce this law, thereby creating a much larger loophole by administrative fiat than actually existed under the law.

Mesa Legislator Chuck Gray alludes to this problem later in the article. Unfortunately, Gray goofs on the law too:

“I maintain there is no loophole. If you look at the law, it grants reciprocity to those ‘temporarily in this state,’ and therefore doesn’t apply to residents (with Utah permits).”

Gray appears to have confused the reciprocity provision, subsection (T), with a separate subsection (U). Subsection (T) contains no reference to being “temporarily in this state,” providng more generally that the reciprocal such agreements should “establish[] a basis under which a concealed weapons license or permit that is issued by either state may be used by the licensee or permittee within the jurisdiction of either state.” The language Gray quoted was lifted from Subsection (U), which allows non-residents to use out of state permits on a more limited, non-reciprocal basis.

Bottom line: the licensing loophole is real, but given the sweeping exception of Subsection (V), it is probably too narrow to be worth worrying about.