Republicans in the House of Representatives are making another attempt (pun intended) to get a covert transfer bill on the agenda of the modern Congress. This is something Second Amendment activists (like me) have been pushing for for years; Although the current practice is arguably unconstitutional under the 2nd Amendment and Article 4 of the Constitution, it creates a hazardous situation in which a legal gun owner can be viewed as a criminal simply for crossing a state line.
Goals of Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) (pun again intended) to remedy this.
The Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, authored by U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., would amend Title 18 in the U.S. Code. There were 124 co-sponsors — all Republicans, including six from North Carolina — in the chamber overdue Thursday afternoon.
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to sign it when the bill reaches his desk. The Senate chambers were a stumbling block, but now it’s a Republican majority of 53 to 47. The House is 219-215 for the Grand Old Party with one vacancy.
“Our Second Amendment rights do not disappear when we cross invisible state lines, and this common-sense legislation guarantees that,” Hudson said. “The Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Law will protect the right of law-abiding citizens to conceal what they are carrying and travel freely between states without worrying about conflicting government regulations or burdensome civil lawsuits.”
It is important to note this Twenty-nine states have concealed carry laws These states, by and huge, still issue concealed carry permits, known as constitutional carry, to allow their residents to carry in states that recognize their permits. This creates a crazy patchwork of disparate laws and expectations that puts perfectly law-abiding Americans at risk of jail time when they cross a state line, even if unintentionally.
Gun banners will point to it and shout: “But federalism!”
Yes, federalism, i.e. the supremacy of states as the highest organ of government, is a valid principle and should be at the center of government policy. In this case we are talking about a fundamental human right that is enshrined and protected by the Constitution. Invoking the rights of the state in this matter is a farce; This is one of the areas in which the national government fulfills its legitimate role, namely protecting the freedom and property of citizens.
See related:
OPINION: Can Donald Trump fulfill the NRA’s Christmas wish list?
Partial Victory in 2nd Amendment: 9th Circuit Upholds Injunction on Concealed Carry Bans
This law should not be necessary, and it is quite a statement of how far the federal government has gone in its disregard for the Constitution that a law like this should even be discussed. The Constitution already has all the provisions we need for this in the “Full Faith and Credit” clause in Article 4 and of course in the Second Amendment:
The Second Amendment:
A well-organized militia is necessary to the security of a free state, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
The full trust and credit clause in Article 4, Section 1:
In each State, full confidence and respect is given to the public files, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof
In a sane world, these would be all the concealed carry permits one should need. But we don’t live in a completely fit world and haven’t for some time.
The gun banners yelped about a sudden return to the Wild West, with shootouts for parking lots and the like; This has not happened in any state that has enacted concealed carry or constitutional carry laws, and will not happen if this national reciprocity law goes into effect. A study by Dr. John Lott from 2016in fact, points out that concealed carry permit holders are, on the whole, more law-abiding and have lower rates of firearms violations than Police officers.
Concealed carry permit holders are even more law-abiding than the police. Between October 1, 1987 and June 30, 2015, Florida revoked 9,999 concealed handgun permits for misdemeanors or felonies. This equates to an annual revocation rate of 12.8 permits per 100,000. In 2013 (the most recent year for which data is available), 158 permit holders were convicted of a felony or misdemeanor—a conviction rate of 22.3 per 100,000. When we combine the data for Florida and Texas, we find that permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors and felonies at less than one-sixth the rate of police officers.
Police firearms violations occur at a rate of 16.5 per 100,000 officers. Among permit holders in Florida and Texas, the rate is just 2.4 per 100,000. That’s only a seventh of the rate for police officers. But there’s no need to focus on Texas and Florida – the data is similar in other states.
In other words, you are safer standing on a street corner next to a typical concealed carry permit holder with his personal handgun than you are standing next to a police officer.
This bill should not be necessary. It is a shame that the clear wording of the Constitution does not preclude the need for this bill. But politics is the art of the possible, this is a step in the right direction, and if Republicans in the House and Senate can do it, they should.
