New Puerto Rico law, Act No. 168, greatly expands gun rights in the US territory effective next week on January 1, 2020. The law adopts a “shall-issue” type of concealed carry permit issuance and cites specifically the need to comply with Supreme Court rulings on the Second Amendment.
Every Puerto Rican age 21 or older shall be issued, upon meeting certain requirements typical in other states, a permit allowing them to carry a firearm concealed in public places. In addition, Puerto Rico will recognize permits issued by all other states — this will be great for the travel industry there, and overall investment. Apart from a brief movement in favor of concealed carry due to a court ruling a few years ago, Puerto Rican gun law has been extremely restrictive so this is a huge change.
For Californians, this is all very good news. California gun owners can stop running away to other states. They can stay in the fight here as there is a real chance of winning. If Puerto Ricans can do this, we can. Like Puerto Rico (and Hawaii and Iraq and a bunch of other places), California has a conqueror’s constitution lacking specific recognition of a right to bear arms (has some vague language, but legislative history is not helpful). It seems you can only have a real constitution if you fight for it (even then, not if you are a stupid New Yorker). But heavily hispanic Puerto Ricans now have right-to-carry and as their society consequently improves, heavily hispanic Californians will hopefully seek the same improvement. Otherwise if current trends continue, the Union may eject imperious-socialist California while it embraces Puerto Rican statehood.
