PHOENIX -- Attorney General Terry Goddard denounced on Thursday a proposal that would significantly loosen Arizona's gun laws by allowing gun owners to carry a concealed weapon without obtaining a permit.

Arizona currently requires gun owners to take an eight-hour course in gun laws and gun safety and pass a shooting test to receive a concealed carry permit. All but a few states have similar laws.

Senate Bill 1270 would drop the permit requirement and allow all gun owners 18 years old or over to carry concealed weapons. It would also allow those with permits to take concealed weapons to schools when picking up and dropping off students.

• Document: Read Senate Bill 1270

Republican Sen. Sylvia Allen of Snowflake said she's sponsoring the bill because Arizonans have a right to defend themselves and shouldn't have to put up with burdensome permit requirements.

"This bill would make a radical and a dangerous change in state law," Goddard said. "Arizona's current law has worked well since being adopted in 1994."

"The permit process requires training and education that promote safety," he said. "Allowing all gun owners to carry concealed would create greater risks for law enforcement officers and community safety."

A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill is scheduled Friday and a vote is expected to follow.

Only two states, Alaska and Vermont, allow gun owners to carry concealed without a permit. They are among the smallest states in the nation, with populations roughly one-tenth the size of Arizona's.

Goddard, who was joined by 10 police chiefs, sheriffs and other officers at a press conference at the State Capitol, noted that the bill is opposed by law enforcement organizations across Arizona.

"If this bill became law, our officers would have to treat every person they come in contact with as if they're armed," said Jack Harris, public safety manager for the City of Phoenix. "That would create large and unnecessary risks."

Allen scoffed at that argument, saying that criminals will continue to carry concealed weapons, with or without a permit. She said she is sponsoring the bill because residents have a right to defend themselves and shouldn't have to put up with burdensome permit requirements.

"This is to protect our citizens," she said.

Allen said she would never suggest that people not get the now-required training on firearms law and testing for familiarity and accuracy of an applicant's weapons use, but that it shouldn't be a state requirement.

Law-abiding citizens also shouldn't be banned from school property to pick up and drop off students just because the adults have a gun in their possession for self-protection, she said.

"They're law-abiding citizens. They're not out to do any harm," she said.

The state constitution provides a right dating from statehood in 1912 to bear arms for defense, and it's legal in Arizona to carry a gun openly, as in a hip holster.

A state law from 1994 allowed residents 21 and older to carry a gun concealed if they get a state permit, which Goddard called "a special privilege."

He said Allen's bill would apparently apply to people as young as 18.

"That's putting the entire community at an unnecessary risk," he said. "I think we've added significantly to the population and perhaps to the danger, and that's what our concern is."