Judges Come Out in Favor of Concealed Carry…for Themselves, Anyway

Judges typically don’t weigh in on legislation before it becomes law (and is subject to litigation), but a trio of federal judges are speaking out in favor of a bill in Congress that would grant them the right to carry a concealed firearm in all 50 states. 

Writing at the Wall St. Journal, judges Elizabeth Branch and Robert L. Wilkins (and supported by Judge Trevor N. McFadden) have come out in favor of Sen. Tom Cotton’s Protect Our Prosecutors and Judges Act, which would amend the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act and allow prosecutors and federal judges with a concealed carry permit to carry across state lines, regardless of whether or not the state they’re in recognizes their permit. As the pair write:

The bill addresses a vulnerability federal judges regularly face. We travel frequently for work, often in high-profile situations. Many appellate judges “ride the circuit” each month, hearing appeals throughout their region but away from their home state. Federal judges on all levels also periodically sit as visiting judges in distant courts that lack a full complement of jurists. Most judges travel regularly to attend judicial conferences, to speak at bar associations and universities, or to officiate moot courts at law schools.

Away from home, federal judges are incredibly vulnerable. Their attendance at hearings and other events is often publicized ahead of time. They frequently find themselves in unfamiliar territory, where they lack the ready access to local law enforcement and federal marshals they enjoy in their home districts.

But due to differences among states’ concealed-carry laws, even judges who can carry firearms in their home jurisdictions often can’t do so when they travel to others. Being unfamiliar with often complex gun laws in other jurisdictions, many judges often reluctantly leave their weapons at home when traveling.

I have no problem with Branch, Wilkins, or any other federal judge being able to lawfully carry a concealed firearm in all 50 states. My issue, though, is that the same should be true for every American who can lawfully carry a firearm in the state where they live. 

The Second Amendment states, in part, that the “right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Not some people. Not special categories of people. Just “the people.” 

I don’t know about you, but I take issue with laws that grant some people the ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights while most of us are left behind. I’m not anti-law enforcement or anti-judge, but I am against turning a fundamental civil right that belongs to the people into a privilege doled out to individuals who work in a particular profession. 

The judges lay out valid reasons why they should be able to carry a firearm for personal protection. But as the Supreme Court reminded us in Bruen, we don’t have to provide a justifiable need to carry a gun in order to do so. It’s our right to carry in publicly accessible places, and that’s all the reason these judges (as well as you and I) need. 

There’s an argument to be made that, if Cotton’s bill becomes law, it could put pressure on Congress to ensure the same national right-to-carry reciprocity for all lawful gun owners. The problem with that, though, is that LEOSA has been on the books for more than twenty years, and I don’t think it’s done much at all to advance the cause of national reciprocity. 

Instead of backing a bill allowing them to carry, I wish these judges had come out in favor of HR 38, which would establish national right-to-carry reciprocity for everyone who can lawfully carry a firearm. I believe these judges should be able to carry when they’re traveling to a new city or when they’re serving on a circuit court outside their home state. I also believe, though, that we all have that same right, and it shouldn’t be deemed a privilege reserved for a special few based on what they do for a living. 

Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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