In an opinion piece at the Los Angeles Times, the editors write that national reciprocity for concealed carry permits is a bad, bad thing. They argue — if that’s the right word — that the big bad federal government shouldn’t force poor little California to do something the California government (largely controlled by the LA Times and other “progressive” media”) does not want them to do. Namely respect the Second Amendment even in a partial, half-hearted way.
The reciprocity movement is nothing more than an effort to drive states’ concealed-carry laws to the lowest common denominator. Consider Utah, for instance.
To qualify for a Utah permit, which is available to nonresidents and is already accepted by 36 other states, one need only be 21 years old, not be deemed ineligible under federal laws (no felony conviction or history of drug and alcohol abuse, for instance) and complete a Utah-certified Weapons Familiarity course, which can be taken outside the state.
In fact, Utah has certified 169 instructors in California alone. Utah’s limited restrictions have made the issuance of concealed-carry permits something of a cottage industry for the state. Two-thirds of Utah’s 632,276 permits as of the end of last year were in the hands of nonresidents.
By comparison, California — with 33 times Utah’s population — has only 79,834 active concealed-carry permits, according to the state attorney general’s office. Among other things, California has a more stringent training regimen and requires a person seeking a permit to show good-cause for needing to carry a concealed weapon.
The editorial board seem oblivious to the fact that Utah has a murder rate of 1.8 per 100,000 people, one of the lowest of any state. California has a murder rate of 4.8 per 100,000 people. The Times also fails to mention that people who may legally carry firearms are less likely to commit crimes than police officers. They are far less likely to commit crimes than the general population.
The LA Times editorial board is, in effect, bragging about how much the State infringes upon the Second Amendment rights of California citizens. They’re pleading with President Donald Trump and those nasty Republicans not to take away their progressive power trip pleasure, citing the Pyrrhic victory that was the Heller ruling
In its 2008 Heller decision (which we think was wrongly decided), the Supreme Court ruled that the 2nd Amendment confers on individuals the right to own a gun for protection in the home. But it also recognized the rights of lower-level governments to regulate guns, and since then has declined to hear appeals of lower court rulings upholding local and state gun regulations, including those barring carrying weapons, concealed or otherwise, outside the home.
But we can’t be confident the Supreme Court will continue to defer to the states. Reasonable minds in Congress need to head this off before the NRA and its legislative acolytes make American even more dangerous by undercutting reasonable gun controls.
I don’t think those words mean what the Times thinks they mean. Wants them to mean. Here’s hoping National Reciprocity passes into law, forcing The LA Times and like-minded statists to face the reality that is the full-incorporated Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.