LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A federal agency is waiting for Arkansas to respond to questions about a new state gun law that went into effect in August. The legislation in question would allow Arkansans with a medical marijuana card to get a license for concealed carry.
“We're a state that has medical marijuana. We're also a very pro-gun state, we value our second amendment here in Arkansas,” said State Representative, Aaron Pilkington.
He said that those two reasons are what led to legislation House Bill 1784 now Act 757 to be introduced.
“Essentially, we were saying choose between your medicine and your second amendment rights, which to me was not fair,” said Pilkington.
The law recently got the attention of the ATF which was no surprise to Nathan House who is the General Manager of Arkansas Armory.
“It has really negative consequences for people's gun rights in Arkansas,” said House.
However, it is surprising to Representative Pilkington.
“When we ran the bill, I don't ever recall hearing from the ATF about their concerns, usually federal agencies are pretty good about kind of letting us know if there's issues,” said Pilkington.
He also said they modeled the legislation after laws in other states.
“We're not trying to do anything that's out of the ordinary, I’ll put it that way,” Pilkington added.
House explained that he has a hunch on how this all could end.
“We're just in a wait-and-see mode right now from ATF to see if they indeed revoke the concealed carry license as an exemption to the additional background check,” said House.
He said it would add pressure on stores like his.
“It takes extra time [and] extra resources in order to run background checks. On top of that, we also have a lot of people that erroneously get delayed or denied buying a gun,” he described.
Meanwhile, Pilkington believes this will all be resolved.
“We’re willing to work with the ATF to be good partners with other federal agencies. But you know, wish they would have come to us a little sooner about their concerns,” said House.
Arkansas State Police explained to us that a response is in the works.
In the meantime, House has been asked to speak at a subcommittee meeting to be held next month at the capitol about federal gun regulations.