What Did Arkansas Pass?

According to June 24, 2013 KNUE 101.5 FM:

Next month Arkansas will join Vermont, Alaska, Wyoming and Arizona as a “Constitutional Carry” state. That means that you don’t need a permit or license to carry weapons, either openly or concealed for lawful purposes.


Arkansas law will now consider people carrying guns the same way many state laws handle possession of any kind of hand tools, so-called “tools of burglary.” Normally, you can get away with carrying common hand tools anywhere you otherwise have a right to be. But if you are caught trying to use them in an attempt of breaking and entering or even trespassing, you can be charged with a crime based on obvious intent to use that tool in a crime. As long as you are not harming, or attempting to harm others with a weapon, then possession alone should not be a crime.

However, this article from the July 9, 2013 Arkansas Business indicates that the Arkansas Attorney-General says that open carry is not legal:

LITTLE ROCK - A state law that takes effect next month doesn't legalize the open carry of handguns despite the insistence of some gun rights advocates, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said in an advisory opinion to legislators Monday.

McDaniel said the measure signed into law that makes technical corrections regarding the possession of a handgun didn't remove the restrictions on carrying weapons openly. Arkansas law currently states that being on a journey is a defense to prosecution for illegally carrying a weapon, but doesn't define what constitutes a journey.

The new law defines a journey as traveling "beyond the county in which the person lives."
"A person does not fall within Act 746's 'journey' exception to the statutes relating to the possession and carrying of a handgun simply because the person has left the county in which he or she lives," the opinion said. "Stated differently, I do not interpret Act 746 as authorizing so-called 'open carry.'"

Arkansas law seems modeled on the old Texas statute in this respect, with the same vagueness.  The A-G's opinion would suggest that this new law is far less broad than Constitutional carry.

I don't have time right now to read the statute, and see what it actually does.