May issue
From Free net encyclopedia
In the United States of America, for a may-issue gun law, authorities (usually the local police) have broad discretion as whether to issue a concealed carry (often a background check and safety class) permit to a given individual. Some may-issue states are, for all practical purposes, no-issue. Other may-issue states have policies that vary radically from one political subdivision to another.
States such as California and New York give wide latitude to the county authorities in issuing permits.
In New York City, a concealed weapons permit is theoretically possible to get but in reality it takes a large degree of political influence and/or celebrity to get one. Examples of current and past New York City permit holders would be Howard Stern, Donald Trump, William F. Buckley Jr., Joan Rivers, and Arthur Sulzberger.
This category may also be interpreted to include states where authorities have very limited discretion in permit issuance. Two states, Alabama and Connecticut, fall into this latter category. Gun rights activists are divided as to whether these states are "may-issue" or "shall-issue".
See also
- shall issue
- no-issue
- unrestricted
- Sullivan Act (granted may-issue authority to New York City police)
- Gun politics
- Gun politics in the US