House Republicans are taking another shot (pun intended) at working a concealed-carry reciprocity bill into the agenda of the new Congress. This is something that pro-Second Amendment activists (like me) have been pushing for years; the current practice, while arguably unconstitutional under the 2nd Amendment and Article 4 of the Constitution, sets up a dangerous situation where a legal gun owner may be deemed a felon just for crossing a state line.
Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC) aims (pun again intended) to remedy that.
The Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, authored by U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., would amend title 18 in the United States Code. As of late Thursday afternoon, 124 cosponsors – all Republicans including six from North Carolina – were on board in the chamber.
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to sign it if the bill reaches his desk. Senate chambers have been a stumbling block but now is a 53-47 majority Republican. The House is 219-215 for the Grand Old Party with one vacancy.
“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.”
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.
Gun banners will point at this and cry “But federalism!”
Yes, federalism, as in the supremacy of the states as the foremost body of government, is a valid principle and should be at the heart of government policy, in this case, we are talking about a fundamental human right, one recorded in and protected by the Constitution. The invoking of the state’s rights in this matter is a canard; this is one of the areas in which the national government is exercising its legitimate role, namely, protecting the liberty and property of the citizens.
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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 Second Amendment:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
The full faith and credit clause in Article 4, Section 1:
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
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.
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.
Concealed carry permit holders are even more law-abiding than police. Between October 1, 1987 and June 30, 2015, Florida revoked 9,999 concealed handgun permits for misdemeanors or felonies. This is an annual revocation rate of 12.8 permits per 100,000. In 2013 (the last 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. Combining the data for Florida and Texas data, we find that permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors and felonies at less than a sixth the rate for police officers.
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.
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.
This bill shouldn’t be necessary. It’s a shame that the clear language of the Constitution doesn’t preclude the necessity of this bill. But politics is the art of the possible, this is a step in the right direction, and if the House and Senate GOP can get this done, they should.
