“National Reciprocity is long overdue. It would help to make people who are already licensed to carry a concealed firearm legally in their home state able to do so in other states.”
Recently, H.R. 38 (commonly called the National Reciprocity Bill) in the House of Representatives gained another co-sponsor. Rep. Karen Handel, R-Ga., signed on as a co-sponsor on August 8th, and became the 208th such co-sponsor of this bill that will have nationwide implications and affect every licensed firearm carrier if it passes.
In case you are not a licensed firearms carrier, or have been reading books instead of listening to national news and issues, H.R. 38 has been splashed across the screens of almost every news source and every internet outlet around.
This bill was originally filed in January of this year and sponsored by 62 cosigners in the House of Representatives. Since then the bill has continued to gain traction with the adding of more and more sponsors in the House. Now with more than 200, it seems to be gaining even more ground. Even two Democratic House members signed the original bill as sponsors, with another signing on later.
Texas and Florida (with 25 and 13 sponsors respectively) lead the way with House sponsors. This is not surprising with Texas’s history of pro 2nd Amendment rights actions and Florida’s record of leading the nation with more concealed carry permits than any other state (1,782,289 as of July 1st, 2017).
But what might really surprise some people, especially those on the pro 2nd Amendment side, is that California, that bastion of anti-firearms laws, left leaning politicians, and Hollywood stars who hate anything to do with firearms (except to use them in movies to make money) comes in third overall with the number of sponsors at twelve.
What does this bill really set out do? Well if you listen to the main stream media and other news outlets online, you may think this bill will force states to accept the concealed carry permits of other states. If you have a license in one state you have a license in all states. This is actually not true. This is the summary of H.R. 38 from the House’s own website on the bill:
Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017
This bill amends the federal criminal code to allow a qualified individual to carry a concealed handgun into or possess a concealed handgun in another state that allows individuals to carry concealed firearms.
A qualified individual must: (1) be eligible to possess, transport, or receive a firearm under federal law; (2) carry a valid photo identification document; and (3) carry a valid concealed carry permit issued by, or be eligible to carry a concealed firearm in, his or her state of residence.
Additionally, the bill specifies that a qualified individual who lawfully carries or possesses a concealed handgun in another state: (1) is not subject to the federal prohibition on possessing a firearm in a school zone, and (2) may carry or possess the concealed handgun in federally owned lands that are open to the public.
What you will notice is that a person must have a concealed carry license from their home state and the state they are traveling into must also allow concealed carry permits, or they must be from a state with Constitutional Carry.
You still cannot be a prohibited person by federal law and carry outside your state just because they have Constitutional Carry.
In addition, this also keeps the requirements to get a firearm that are currently in effect. It does not make it any easier or harder to get a firearm or permit. It also does not do away with state laws on restrictions on where you can carry a firearm. If in Florida you cannot carry a firearm on a college campus, just because you come from Texas, or somewhere else that may be permitted, you may not do it in Florida. You will have to research and know the laws of the states you are traveling in and the particulars of each state’s concealed carry programs.
What if the state where the person resides does not have concealed carry permits but has Constitutional Carry, which allows a person to lawfully carry a firearm either concealed or openly without a permit required?
They would be permitted to carry in other states, following the other states concealed carry laws, and must have a valid ID from their home state, and meet all the requirements to carry in their home state. You still cannot be a prohibited person by federal law and carry outside your state just because they have Constitutional Carry. And you would not be able to openly carry a firearm in more restrictive states like Florida which has limited open carry exceptions.
Of course, even before this bill was submitted, the rumor and press releases about it fueled immediate responses from groups like Everytown for Gun Safety and their media outlets like the Daily Kos, whose Brina Milikowsky wrote that the bill would “allow dangerous individuals — including convicted criminals, domestic abusers, and stalkers — to legally carry weapons in public.”
An Everytown-funded petition on Daily Kos urged senators to oppose it, claiming the bill would allow “dangerous people to carry guns on their streets,” including “violent criminals, stalkers, and domestic abusers.”
This of course is blatantly false as those people who are prohibited to carry under Federal Code would continue to be.
National Reciprocity is long overdue. It would help to make people who are already licensed to carry a concealed firearm legally in their home state able to do so in other states. A simple concept, yet it is hard for so many to understand. What should be logical and a non-issue for most adults with any amount of common sense and knowledge of firearms laws seems to drive the opposition into a frothing frenzy.
What is even funnier is my opinion that H.R. 38 does not go far enough with its extension of what is supposed to be a Constitutional right. How about this Everytown and Bloomberg and all the rest of the anti-firearms crowd? Let’s just let the Constitution be the law of the land. It already is in many states (13 as of 03/2017) and three more have a limited form of this policy. Yet we do not see crime and murder and blood running in the streets of those states.
So, since it seems to work, I propose we make it nationwide. One just has to look to Vermont, where they have had permit less carry of concealed handguns since it became a state. Yet Vermont never seems to make the crime headlines of the nation.
Constitutional Carry of a Firearm by non-prohibited persons. Now there is a novel idea for you, follow the Constitution and listen to the meaning of “shall not be infringed”. But all that is for another day’s article and discussion.
