This law shouldn’t be necessary, and it’s quite a statement as to 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 contains every provision we need for this to happen, in the full faith and credit clause of Article 4 and, of course, the Second Amendment:
The gun banners would yap about a sudden return to the Wild West, with shootouts over parking spaces and the like; this hasn’t happened in any state that passed “shall-issue” concealed carry laws or constitutional carry, and won’t happen in the event of this national reciprocity bill becoming law. A 2016 study by Dr. John Lott, in fact, points out that concealed carry permit holders are, by and large, more law-abiding and have a lower rate of firearms violations than police officers.
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In other words, you are safer standing on a street corner next to your typical concealed carry permit holder with their personal sidearm, than next to a police officer.
Among police, firearms violations occur at a rate of 16.5 per 100,000 officers. Among permit holders in Florida and Texas, the rate is only 2.4 per 100,000. That is just 1/7th of the rate for police officers. But there’s no need to focus on Texas and Florida — the data are similar in other states.
Gun banners will point at this and cry “But federalism!”
“Our Second Amendment right does not disappear when we cross invisible state lines, and this commonsense legislation guarantees that,” Hudson said. “The Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act will protect law-abiding citizens’ rights to conceal carry and travel freely between states without worrying about conflicting state codes or onerous civil suits.”
In a sane world, those would be all the concealed-carry authorization one should need. But we do not live in a completely sane world and have not for some time.
It’s important to note that, while 29 states have permitless concealed carry laws – known as constitutional carry – those states do, by and large, still issue concealed carry permits, so that their residents may carry in states that recognize their permits. That sets up a crazy patchwork of different laws and expectations, subjecting perfectly law-abiding Americans to the risk of prison if they cross a state line, even inadvertently.
The Second Amendment:
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof
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