Rep. Ricky Hill, R-Cabot, leads a meeting for a subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council on Aug. 21, 2024. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
A subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council on Wednesday made progress toward finalizing firearm-related policy recommendations, which will influence bills brought forward in the 2025 legislative session.
Discussion was minimal as co-chair Sen. Ricky Hill, R-Cabot, led members of the Game & Fish/State Police Subcommittee through six pages of recommendations ; the overall content primarily focused on constitutional and concealed carry in different locations, including near schools, at school bus stops, in airports and courthouses.
In an interview after the meeting, Rep. Jack Fortner, R-Yellville, said the year-long study has been about creating a path to clear and concise laws so there’s less interpretation among members of law enforcement.
“We found literally thousands of laws that mentioned guns, and we’re narrowing that down to a very few,” Fortner said.
The subcommittee will meet several times in the next few months, and by December, lawmakers will be presented with a final report and draft bills ahead of the legislative session in January. Fortner did not disclose how many bills were in the works.
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According to Everytown Research and Policy, an organization that advocates for stricter gun laws in the country through various groups like Moms Demand Action, Arkansas has the weakest gun laws in the country . Arkansas also tracks one of the highest gun violence rates of nearly 22 deaths per 100,000 residents; the national average rate is about 14 deaths.
A mass shooting in June inside a Fordyce grocery store left four people dead and 11 more wounded.
On Wednesday, lawmakers voted to expunge two previous motions regarding firearms in gun-free school zones and one about concealed carry in airports. The earlier actions, which occurred during a January meeting, recommended state law be amended to mirror federal law in each instance.
For constitutional carry in a gun-free school zone, lawmakers recommended following current Arkansas law, which differs from federal law in that it does not prohibit possessing a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school but rather on a “developed property” of a public or private school.
Similarly, lawmakers recommended following state law regarding concealed carry in a gun-free school zone. Their recommendation included that the law should be clear to any resident “that they can carry on school grounds to pick up their child from school but cannot carry inside of the school buildings,” according to a state document.
A separate motion recommended school bus stops should be removed from the list of prohibited concealed carry locations. According to state documentation, issues with the prohibition include that the stop can be on the curb of one’s home, at a stop sign or in a private business parking lot. The location is also generally prohibited for a “very short time frame,” the document states.
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As it relates to concealed carry in airports, lawmakers recommended following Arkansas law instead of amending the language to be consistent with federal law. In Arkansas, travelers are permitted to carry firearms inside non-secure areas of an airport, but not into any passenger terminals unless it is properly encased for shipment.
In March 2022 , the Transportation Security Administration warned about the frequency in which Arkansans were bringing handguns to security checkpoints in the state’s airports. The TSA cited travelers’ most common excuse as “they forgot they had their gun with them.”
“That’s no excuse,” Tim Berroyer, TSA’s federal security director for Arkansas, said at the time. “If you own a firearm, you need to know where it is at all times. It’s part of being a responsible gun owner.”
A national trend, travelers at airports across the nation are approaching checkpoints with firearms at higher rates than previous years.
Other business
In addition to expunging past actions to adopt new recommendations, lawmakers proceeded with a proposal that would prohibit municipalities and counties from enacting firearm requirements that are more restrictive than state law.
Lawmakers also approved a recommendation to allow judges the authority to decide what personnel in their courtroom, if any, carry firearms.
Arkansas gun laws to be studied with an eye toward clarity, lawmakers decide
Following the approval of new recommendations, Sen. Justin Boyd, R-Fort Smith, asked that the subcommittee consider striking a statute that deals with an offense of negligent discharge of firearms while deer hunting.
Austin Booth, director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, concurred with Boyd’s recommendation to repeal the statute. No other lawmakers commented on the matter.
Boyd also asked the subcommittee to consider raising the fine for someone who shoots at a train. The current fine amount ranges from $25 to $250, but Boyd said staff from the attorney general’s office told him it hasn’t been updated since 1893.
While Boyd loosely recommended the fine should increase to a cost around $1,000, lawmakers are expected to discuss the matter further at their next meeting.
Staff should also expect to discuss a law concerning Civil War reenactments and residents’ ability to carry unloaded Civil War-era weapons. Boyd suggested that the law should be broadened to include other historic wars.
In response to this, Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, warned that the language should be very specific about wars that take place on American soil.
“I wouldn’t want someone to get squirrelly with it and do something strange,” Irvin said. “We don’t need ballistic missiles pointing at each other.”
The subcommittee will meet again on Sept. 4 at 1:30 p.m.
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