Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act back in the Senate
Texas Senator John Cornyn has revived the national concealed carry law to standardize permits for lawful gun owners who cross state lines. It’s the same law that West Virginia’s Joe Manchin introduced before his re-election in 2012, but seemed to abandon in the wake of the Sandy Hook murders, although concealed carry laws didn’t come into play in that tragedy. Our favorite Second Amendment journalist, Emily Miller at the Washington Times reports;
Anti-gun activists have attempted to make Mr. Cornyn’s bill seem extremist.
“There’s some scaremongering going on out there, but it’s pretty straightforward,” he said. “It’s like a driver’s license. It doesn’t trump state laws. Say you have a carry permit in Texas; then you use it in another state that has a concealed-carry law.”
This popular, common-sense legislation is necessary because the current system is totally convoluted. Each state decides which permits from other states it recognizes as lawful, and some recognize none.
Gun owners are stuck doing extensive legal research to travel, but they can still get caught in the thicket. Mr. Cornyn said, “There are some jurisdictions like to play ‘gotcha.’”
I’m pretty sure that the bill will go no where because even it makes it through the Senate and the House, there’s no way the President will allow even a small victory for those of us who lawfully own and use guns.
Category: Guns
This thing has come up virtually every session since 1994, hasn’t it?
You know, I am torn about this, truly torn. So we like small government and want the Feds out our daily business…but we want themm to force CC reciprocity on states?
I say states should be allowed to work out their own reciprocity agreements…10th Amendment in action and all.
in before venemous whore pussy AKA USS Autocracy.
seriously though sounds great, but what are the odds of us getting a 2/3rds majority to overturn dear leaders veto?
@2: While I agree with you in some aspects, just like driver license standards, I think that having standards for training and acceptance by all states that have ccw laws is on the same level. Since the Constitution overrides state law, it should be a federal issue. In my opinion.
A friend of mine has a permit and a concealed carry. Her evil soon to be ex, knew she was going to Jersey from SC. He packed her weapon unbeknownst to her and we think, on purpose. It appears that as she was leaving the hotel and her bag was at the curb, the hotel folks somehow decided to “search” her bag and found the weapon in an outside cargo pocket normally used for shoes. She was charged because of Jersey law. As a nurse, she could have lost her license because of this. She was able to go to court and through testimony of others, including me, to get the charge dropped. I’m thinking it’s because she had documentation to prove that her ex was a vindictive SOB. Jersey recognizes no other state permits. She got very lucky.
Must be one of those “aginners” on this, as I am on most other issues that the feds have coopted as their own.
The purpose of the US Constitution is to protect us FROM the feds, not to give them a tool to use against us. Or even supposedly for us.
Self governance is not easy. It takes time and thought. As society has become more lazy, we have become comfortable giving away more and more of our liberty to others. We are already paying the price for that laziness.
Not a huge fan of more Federal Laws and Regulation, except where to force states to comply with the US Constitution.
I do not believe Federal Law beyond the Constitution itself was ever meant to really exist.
That said, the States themselves do maintain a large degree of independence to write and create their own laws, as long as they do not run counter to the Constitution. The US Supreme Court has maintained that the indidual is guaranteed the right to bear arms, but also that States have the right to enact “reasonable” laws in regards to guns as well. The issue is, they have not done a good job of explaining what is reasonable. Obviously to some States it is registrations,resticting types of weapons and their configurations, alowing authorities the ability to deny a person their right based on a whim through overly burdensome licensing procedures.
In my opinion, the SCOTUS needs to clarify in very plain and simple language that absent a criminal history or history of severe mental illness that no US Citizen should be denied their right to bear arms.
How about a federal law that mandates that all CCW permits in states that have them are to be recognized by all other states.
Oh, wait – that’s what this is about, isn’t it?
If you expect common sense to be something this government will ever use, I have a toll road I can sell you.
I haven’t looked into this issue even a little bit but, on its face, I don’t like it. My thinking is this: Presently, each state is empowered to set the permit standard and, of course, the fee for the application and permit. If a federal law is passed that requires reciprocity, then it follows that there must be one standard. If there is one standard, who sets it? Why, the feds, of course. And it seems to me that’s an excellent backdoor route to make the standard so onerous and costly that permit issuance will be reduced everywhere.
Follow-up to cmt 9. Yeah, well, my point assumes that such a standard would be exclusive and that every permit issued by a state would be reciprocal. That aion’t necessarily so, just as there are driver’s license that meet the fed standard for positive ID and those that don’t. There could be an in-state permit and one with a big R on it to signify that the permit holder met the uniform standard that I presume the feds would establish.
You would think it should be relatively easy – minimum realistic standards showing the permit holder grasps the concepts, is able to hit a target reasonably, that sort of thing – and any state program that meets those minimum standards has full reciprocity. But the NY/CA types will want
impossible standards, and some of the mouthfrothers will insist on no standards, and this act will die a’bornin’.
Maybe they should just tie it all to the driver’s license – if your license has a big red C on it, that IS your CCW/CHL.
@5: That happened to a guy in my Company. His now ex-wife loaded his guns, then put them in the trunk of his car. When he left for work she called the MPs.
I was going to relate that an out-of-state police office I knew of some years ago was himself arrested for carrying a loaded gun in his vehicle in Joisey. Would a cop do that to another? The answer, in Joisey, is definitely yes. Doubt it? Here’s a dashboard cam video that shows what happens when a couple of local Bergen County cops are visited by a NJ State trooper. The real fun begins at the seven minute mark. Caution: If in a workplace, do not play w/o a headset. It is quite funny, in a sick sort of way. Remind me NEVER to go through Joisey if I can help it. (When the page comes up, hit the arrow on the lower screen. The topmost one is just a still pic.)
http://cliffviewpilot.com/video-nj-state-police-dashboard-camera-shows-ergen-county-police-confrontation/
Well, I have mixed feelings on this. On one side, it would be nice for the Fed not to have that kind of monopoly. On the flip side, it would definitely benefit some jurisdictions, like San Francisco, which has two issued permits in the entire city, both to high-ranking police officers.
Glad I don’t have to drive to FT Devens anymore.
Just wish NH had reciprocity with ME.
Anything south of NH is no go territory.
I’m glad this has come up, though I don’t think it goes far enough. Federal law should allow concealed carry in all states and set minimum requirements. But, it’s a good start.
Maybe the NRA can influence this by not holding National events in any state that does not honor the permits from all other CCW states.