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| Updated: 3/08 6:15 pm |
Published: 3/08 12:35 pm |
LITTLE ROCK, AR - The Arkansas House has voted against lowering the cost of conceal carry gun licenses.
House Bill 1329 sought to cut the fee in half, from 100-dollars to 50-dollars. The cost for veterans or anyone over 60 would have been lowered to 25-dollars. For those with a protective order against an abusive spouse, the fee would have dropped to zero.
Conceal carry licensing is on a record pace for the Arkansas State Police, so there is a lot of interest about the proposal.
It's estimated that lowering these fees would carve out about one million dollars from the Arkansas State Police budget.
House Rep. Andrea Lea (R-Russellville) admitted that's where the difficulty lies.
"I recognize this is a tough vote. I'm not going to pretend it's not and I just appreciate you go with me and my constituients," said Lea this morning.
However, the Republican-controlled House did not this time, failing the bill with just 31 yes votes.
The idea can come up again however, it's unclear whether it will.
