In the United States, concealed carry is the right to carry a handgun or other weapon in public in a concealed manner. In some states, it applies only to the carry of firearms as all other weapons are expressly not covered by the right. Even as the number of states adopting legislation permitting this has grown, it has met with opposition.
Currently, 46 U.S. states permit adults who have applied, have no criminal record, and (in some cases) meet training requirements to carry one or more handguns in a concealed manner.In 38 of these states, issuing officials may not arbitrarily deny a permit application, a practice known as Florida-style "shall issue." A further eight states have "may issue" laws; typically specific "need" must be established, but in practice, this is often a mechanism to prohibit most people from carrying.
These "may issue" states range from "shall issue" in practice (Alabama and Connecticut are examples) to "at the whim of local officials" (such as New York and California; rural officials in those states liberally issue permits but officials in urbanized counties generally are more restrictive) to "almost non-issue" in states such as Maryland and Hawaii where even documented death threats are sometimes not sufficient to convince officials to issue permits.
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As of 2005, only four US States—Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Illinois—have no provision whatsoever that would allow for the legal concealed carry of firearms by "ordinary" citizens. There are currently movements in each of these states to pass concealed-carry laws; in two of these states, legislation was passed in 2004 and again in 2005, but vetoed by the respective governors. It is expected that Wisconsin will have a signed Concealed Carry law by the end of 2006; as the governor can no longer sustain an override-proof position.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealed_carry
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