Why Michigan Has The Most Recognized Firearms Carry License In The U.S.

The Concealed Carry Purse
The Concealed Carry Purse
Michigan Open Carry
Michigan Open Carry

Michigan – -(Ammoland.com)-Michigan Concealed Pistol License (CPL) holders have the unique benefit of not permit matching (obtaining licenses from other state in order to add to the reciprocity/recognition list).

A Michigan CPL is valid in every state that recognizes a carry license.

The only places it isn’t valid in is in states that do not recognize out of state licenses ( New Jersey, they don’t even recognize or issue their own state licenses). There is no magic formula to gaining reciprocity for the most part.

It helped that Jennifer Granholm and Mike Cox were two Attorney Generals who aggressively seeked signed reciprocity agreements with states that required such agreements for recognition.

To simplify this, this is largely due to the following three reasons.

  • 1. Michigan will not issue if you are a federally prohibited person.
  • 2. The validity of a CPL can be verified 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
  • 3. Michigan requires training with live fire.

Michigan conducts the equivalent of a NICS check prior to issuance. There are some states that will issue to people even if they are federally prohibited from owning a firearm. Michigan is not in this category; therefore, we score points when it comes to background checks. We even meet the requirements for recognition with Washington State; which requires strict mental health reporting requirements.

Another issue that isn’t so much of an issue anymore is the ability for out of state LEO’s to verify the validity of a permit. Until recently, many states lacked this ability and places like Virginia will not honor a permit if they don’t have an easy means to verify it. While most states now have 24/7 verification, Michigan was one of the earlier adopters of this, in fact, back when Michigan was “may-issue”, CPL info was placed into a state database that was not difficult for authorities to access if need be.

Concealed Carry
Concealed Carry

Finally, Michigan has training with live fire, this is a situation where having more restrictions means for more reciprocity. This is an absolute requirement for states like Nevada where they will not recognize a permit unless live fire is required as a condition of issuance.

It is important to note, that having a liberal issuance law does not mean reciprocity/recognition would drop like flies. In fact, if Michigan got rid of the fingerprinting requirement and the laundy list of misdemeanor disqualifiers, we wouldn’t lose any states that we currently have.

If we ever get a friendly governor who is willing to sign pro-RKBA reform, this issue should be looked at. I would recommend a multi-tier permit system, similar to Idaho and North Dakota. These states have opted to create an additional license for the purpose of reciprocity while leaving the older system in place in effort to avoid the predicament of passing more gun control in order to gain more reciprocity.

I would recommend a Class 1 CPL where there is no training requirement and the minimum age of issuance is 18 and the issuance guidlines mirror the disqualifications of a Purchase Permit. This permit could even be valid for 10 years or for life.

The current CPL would become a Class 2 CPL where all the current requirements remain in place with the exception of the laundy list of misdemeanor disqualifiers, a decent compromise would be to whittle down the massive list to a misdemeanor crime of violence in the past 5 years where there was intentional damage or harm to a person or property. If a person had this on their record, then the CPL could become “may-issue” in their case until the 5 years have lapsed. This is how the state of Mississippi handles this issue and they seem to do just fine.

If we ever have a friendlier climate in Lansing, there is no reason we can’t liberalize the CPL process while still having the most recognized carry license in the U.S.

About Michigan Open Carry
Michigan Open Carry, Inc is a Not-For-Profit organization that depends on our dues paying members to continue our operation.  We are an all-volunteer organization.  As such, no one is paid a salary and very few of the personal expenses of our officers are reimbursed.  Won’t you consider joining us or renewing as a dues paying member today?  If you need technical help with the process, please email [email protected].

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T.D.

It should be noted that last year with a computer update, outside States lost the ability to verify our Michigan CPLs 24/7. As a result of this, we lost Nevada from the list of States that honor our CPL, taking us from 40 to 39 States. This is the wrong direction. I have it on good authority that we can easily be added back on Nevada’s list if/when the computer validation issue is resolved, but to my knowledge neither has happened yet.

COLDEADHANDS

Come on guys, let’s leave the grammar and all that crap for the trolls. We should be on here because we all have a common goal! That goal being the 2ND amendment and anything else to do with the constitution! Screw the GRAMMAH!

TEX

I ain’t gonna comment on this here !
Coulda,woulda,shoulda !

Quagmire

Tred, it should be “You’re” instead of “Your”.

Horatio

Quagmire, if you are in the business of correcting anyone’s use of the English language, you will better serve if you refrain from using constractions like ‘you’re’, ‘ain’t’ and such the like… Those are, in essence, broken English and may be used only in verbal conversations, not in written text… So lighten up and allow Tred to be what he wants to be…

lava

Paragraph ten: “I would recommend a Class 1 CPL….”
I hate when you say “I” but do not name an author. At the top it’s Ammoland, at the bottom it’s Michigan Open Carry.
Who, exactly, recommends it? If MOC, you should say “we recommend.”

In paragraph eleven, “the CPL could become a may-issue until the 5 years have lapsed.” You mean “elapsed.”

Tred Law

@Lava, you are a grammar Nazi what does any of that have to do with the facts. Stop wasting our air.

Danny Griffin

Ammoland took this article from here: https://www.miopencarry.org/news/2015/01/why-michigan-is-the-most-recognized-carry-license

It was written by J. Coyne, hence the “I,” but Ammoland didn’t credit the author.