Gun rights advocate addresses Garland County TEA Party

An undated handout photo of Gary Epperson, courtesy of the Garland County TEA Party. - Submitted photo
An undated handout photo of Gary Epperson, courtesy of the Garland County TEA Party. - Submitted photo

The 2013 statute allowing handguns to be carried for lawful purposes confers the right to bring a gun almost anywhere, the president and founder of Gun Owners of Arkansas said.

Gary Epperson told the Garland County TEA Party Wednesday that his advocacy group plans to test that assertion.

"Under the wording of the journey law we changed, we think that gives you the right to carry right into the Capitol without a permit," he said.

An enhanced concealed carry permit is required to bring a gun into most publicly-owned buildings under the weapons chapter of the state criminal code, but Epperson said Act 746 makes a permit unnecessary. The 2013 law allows the carrying of a handgun if there's no intent to use it unlawfully and if it's for the purposes of a "journey," which the statute defined as "beyond the county in which the person lives."

Epperson said Gun Owners of Arkansas worked to expand the definition, helping pass the 2021 law that redefined it as leaving the home "or the curtilage of his or her home either on foot, horseback, bicycle or in an automobile for any purpose or duration."

"You are on a journey whenever you leave your residence for any purpose for any duration," Epperson said. "Under the wording of that, wherever I go I'm on a journey. We even think it covers you in a college, but I'm not going to tell you do it. Somebody will inadvertently get that law tested that would have a chance where before they had none."

Epperson said Act 746 allows guns to be carried openly without a permit, a right also known as constitutional carry. The state Court of Appeals has agreed, ruling in Jamie Taff v. State of Arkansas that "unlawful intent" must be present to make possession of a handgun a criminal act.

"Permitless carry is the only firearm statute on the books that has established case law," Epperson said. "You have to prove unlawful intent to get a conviction for carrying a firearm in Arkansas."

Gun Owners of Arkansas tested the limits of constitutional carry, challenging law enforcement to arrest members who openly carried a firearm in public.

"We were very strategic and careful how we did it," Epperson said. "We didn't get militant like Open Carry Texas did, but we got our point across and we challenged law enforcement respectfully, the right way."

He said permit holders are subject to the lengthy concealed handguns subchapter of the criminal code, whereas nonpermit holders have fewer statutory limits.

"You are far more restricted by having a permit than not having one," he said. "You've got the 30 pages of rules you agree to when you get the license you have to adhere to. I'm not subject to those rules. Those rules don't apply to a non-permitted person."

Epperson said permit holders aren't always protected by Act 250 of 2021, known as the state's "stand your ground" law. According to the statute, a person who uses or threatens physical force in self-defense doesn't have a duty to retreat if they're "lawfully present in the location." Epperson said the law doesn't protect a permit holder who brings a gun into a business that has a sign prohibiting guns.

"You have a permit and walk past the door, you've violated the law," he said. "Me, as a non-permit holder goes past that sign, I have violated no law whatsoever. The only time I violate the law is if that business owner sees me carrying and asks me to leave and I refuse to do so."

Epperson said his group opposed Act 250, one of several laws he said have done more to enhance politicians' credentials with Second Amendment advocates than advance gun rights.

"It's worthless and convoluted," he said. "It's one of the worst laws we've ever run across. We got a lot of flack for being against that law."

Calling it "stand your ground," even though the phrase wasn't included in the statute, was a political ploy, he said.

"Why mention it and invoke the responses from the liberal left to attack it when you don't need to," Epperson said. "It was political pandering because Republicans wanted to say we passed stand your ground.

"We're not about political pandering. We want solid, plain, sensible gun laws. We don't want to protect the criminal, but we want to protect the innocent and gun owners as much as possible."

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