National concealed carry reciprocity is every gun owner’s ideal. Just as a driver’s license is good no matter where you go in the 50 United States (and allegedly in D.C. too), a state-issued concealed carry permit should be similarly honored throughout the nation.
The last time national reciprocity became even a remote possibility and seemed to have momentum — that was early in the Trump administration when Republicans controlled both Congress and the White House — Michael Bloomberg hired on some new minions and committed more of his pocket change to fight the effort. He was that concerned that it might become a reality.
Two months later the Congressional Baseball Shooting happened and linguini-spined Republicans quietly euthanized both national reciprocity and the Hearing Protection Act.
Today…surprise!…three GOP senators have just announced the introduction of a new national reciprocity bill in the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body™.
As Senator Bill Cassidy’s press release announces . . .
U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and 43 Senate Republicans, today introduced the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would allow individuals with concealed carry privileges in their home state to exercise those rights in any other state that allows concealed carry, while still abiding by that state’s laws.
“The right to protect yourself and your family should not end at the state border,” said Dr. Cassidy. “This bill ensures law-abiding citizens can exercise that right to defend themselves regardless of what state they’re in.”
“I’m proud to support law-abiding gun owners across America with this commonsense legislation that would let them concealed carry in all states that allow it,” said Senator Cornyn. “This legislation strengthens two of our most fundamental constitutional protections – the Second Amendment’s right of citizens to keep and bear arms and the Tenth Amendment’s right of states to make laws best-suited for their residents – and I’m grateful to XX (sic) of my Republican Senate colleagues for joining me on this important bill.”
“The constitutional right of self-defense should not disappear simply because an individual crosses state lines,” said Senator Hagerty. “I’m pleased to join my Senate colleagues in this commonsense legislation to ensure that law-abiding Tennesseans who are permitted to carry a concealed firearm are able to exercise that right in other states, consistent with those states’ laws, without having to obtain a separate permit.”
Gosh, all of that makes us want to stand up, salute the flag, and take a big bite of apple pie.
The only problem with all of that, of course, is the bill doesn’t have an ice cube’s chance in Hell of ever making it into law. If Chuck Schumer somehow sustained a serious head injury and scheduled it for a vote…and then by some miracle a couple of Democrats crossed over and actually voted for it…and then the bill also cleared the House…it would still be DOA as soon as it hit grumpy ol’ Joe’s desk. He’d veto it faster than he dips into his afternoon cup of tapioca.
These three distinguished Washington Solons are well aware of that. They know full well they’ll never be called on to actually vote for this bill.
And it’s probably just a coincidence that two of them — Cassidy and Cornyn — also voted for last year’s federal gun control bill, the happy-crappy Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that DOCTOR Jill Biden told Joe to sign into law.
They also know the bill serves as a great bit of “news” for their next constituent email blasts. It burnishes their 2A bona fides and might even placate a few gun owners back home in Texas and Louisiana who, they dearly hope, will forget about the gun control bill they allowed Joe Biden to sign into law.
In the mean time, the CCRKBA is giving them an atta-boy . . .
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today applauded the introduction of the “Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act” by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and is encouraging America’s 22 million-plus licensed citizens to get behind the measure.
“No citizen should leave his or her self-defense rights at their state border,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “While many individual states do have reciprocity agreements, we have always maintained—and the Supreme Court has affirmed—the right to keep and bear arms applies to the entire nation, and this legislation certainly recognizes that.
“We’re encouraged that so many members of the Senate, 43 in all, are signed on as co-sponsors,” he added. “Unfortunately, we don’t see a single Democrat’s name on the list, but hopefully that will change, because their constituents have Second Amendment rights, too.”
The Cornyn-Hagerty measure will allow citizens with concealed carry permits and licenses in their home state to exercise their rights in any other state. It also treats state-issued carry licenses like a driver’s license; good in any state, but the laws of those states must be followed. It protects state sovereignty by not establishing a national concealed carry standard.
“The last time a national reciprocity bill was introduced,” Gottlieb recalled, “it passed the House but stalled in the Senate while the gun prohibition lobby and Capitol Hill anti-gunners flat-out lied about what it would do, and not do. Wild claims that reciprocity would force states to not enforce their own laws ran rampant, as did the specious argument that the federal government would adopt a single weak standard everyone would have to follow.
“That experience reminded us how anti-gunners will say literally anything to prevent law-abiding Americans from being able to exercise their right to bear arms, and to defend themselves, while traveling,” he noted. “It’s time for national reciprocity to become the law of the land, and we hope American gun owners will keep an eye on this legislation.”