California - the Nanny State:

I bought this S&W 642 in California a while back. I had to wait ten days to take it home, even though I was legally carrying another gun on the same day I bought this one. Apparently, the ten day wait is to let me cool off so I don't hurt someone with the new gun. Of course, that does nothing about my ability to hurt someone with the 9mm I had already been carrying all day.

I bought the gun in California because it has to be registered in California before the Sheriff will list the gun on my California CCW. I can't carry it in California until it has been listed on my existing CCW permit. The process of listing the gun on my existing permit takes weeks. Two weeks have already passed since I applied for the modification to add this gun to my California permit. I'm still waiting.

Arizona - The Free State:

I have residency in both California and Arizona. I could have purchased this gun here in Arizona. Had I done so, I would have walked out of the gun store with the revolver the moment I paid for it. Arizona will run a background check, but they do it in minutes. No waiting period.

Since Arizona is a Constitutional Carry State, no permit is required for me to carry this gun. I've been carrying it since we got here - legally. Likewise, Arizona does not maintain a firearms registry, unlike California. It does not matter if the gun is registered, as far as Arizona is concerned.

In Arizona I am a trusted citizen with rights. I can carry any gun I own. However, I will no longer be a trusted citizen with rights once I cross the border to enter California.

Once there, I can't carry this gun - even though I have a California CCW permit. I can carry my S&W Shield 9mm or my Springfield XD 40 in California, but I can't carry this 5 shot 38. This gun, this little 38 Special revolver, must be transported in a locked container separate from the ammunition even though I will be carrying another gun legally the entire time. Explain the logic of that, if you can.

One more difference. Although Arizona runs a background check for firearms purchases, as all states do, you are exempt if you have a valid Arizona concealed carry permit at the time of purchase. Arizona doesn't require a permit in order to carry, but there are some advantages to having one, so I do.

Therefore, if I had purchased the gun here in Arizona:
1. There would have been about a ten minute wait (just long enough to fill out the 4473 and pay for the gun) rather than a 10 day wait, as in California
2. I would have been able to carry the gun immediately, instead of going through a long and costly process to add the gun to my existing permit, as in California.

And so, if you have never dealt with a gun purchase or the CCW permit process in California, now... as Paul Harvey would say, you know the rest of the story.