For the restoration of the right to bear arms as of September 2016, click here. As of September 2016, eleven states allowed open "constitutional" carry and thirty-one additional states require issuance of a carry license to anyone not prohibited by their criminal past or adjudicated insanity, while eight states still hold to the "good ole boy" network of giving licenses to carry to their friends or political cronies. As of that time, all "prohibited carry" had been eliminated from the country which is a significant restoration of citizens' rights from the heavy infringement widespread in 1986 wherein sixteen states flat-out denied their citizens any means of exercising their constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

This is a direct result of the efforts of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA). With the significant infringements that began in the early 1900s and culminated in the gun control act of 1968, the NRA recognized how rapidly the 2nd Amendment was being trivialized and headed straight for the dustbin of history. With the creation of the ILA in 1975, a methodical approach of reason and persuasion began to reverse the quickly evaporating right of the people to keep and bear arms. Below is an animated graphic showing the amazing results of the ILA's efforts from 1986 through 2016.

Ultimately, we should soon see a full restoration of the right to keep and bear arms to a "constitutional" carry condition (identified in the graphic above as "green", Unrestricted). After all, that is what the founding fathers gave us. Despite the so-called "progressives" efforts (significantly beginning with Franklin Delano Roosevelt) to strip us of our rights as citizens of this nation, the American people awoke to these nefarious efforts thanks to the "call to arms" by the NRA and the restorative efforts of the NRA-ILA.

While some people can never be satisfied on either side of this issue, the methodical approach of reason and persuasion has proven itself effective. The progressive left (an oxymoron since "progress" is defined by them as curtailing individual rights in favor of tyrannical government) continues to rant and rave with specious arguments that facts totally refute. The ultra-right of this issue demands full restoration immediately and condemns in the strongest terms anyone "slow to see" their "rightness". This latter group fails in that as a nation of consensus, the art of persuasion is necessary. The NRA chooses its battles carefully, recognizing that with the light of truth, "right" will eventually prevail within the majority. And the NRA-ILA has proven itself as the animated graphic above clearly demonstrates.