National Constitutional Carry Reciprocity Advances in House

Constitutional carry is kind of the Holy Grail for gun rights in most states. When you get that, you tend to have pretty permission laws on the books. Sure, they might not be perfect, but if you can get permitless carry, you tend to have the right environment to get anything else pro-gun you need to get passed.

Unless you’re in Florida, apparently.

Anyway, one issue with constitutional carry, though, is that if you’re traveling to a non-constitutional carry state, you have to go through the permitting process of your home state if you want to carry in that other state. That is, of course, assuming that your state has reciprocity with your destination.

National reciprocity has been high on gun rights advocates’ wish lists for quite some time. Constitutional carry reciprocity is even better, and it just advanced in the House.

Allowing people with state-issued concealed carry licenses or permits to conceal a handgun in any other state, a bill proposed by a North Carolina congressman, has moved forward from a congressional committee.

The Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, authored by Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., and also known as House Resolution 38, would amend title 18 in the United States Code. The Judiciary Committee of the House advanced the bill in a voice vote on Tuesday.

As of midday Wednesday, 178 cosponsors were on board in the chamber. That includes a lone Democrat in Rep. Jared Golden of Maine and each of the nine other Republicans from North Carolina.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the committee, told colleagues, “Our First Amendment rights do not change from one state to another and our Second Amendment rights should not either. Law-abiding citizens should be able to a concealed firearm between states without worrying about conflicting state criminal laws or onerous civil suits.”

He said there are in excess of 22 million concealed carry permit owners throughout the nation. Twenty-nine states have constitutional carry, or permitless carry laws.

Gun Owners of America celebrated the move, noting that those of us living in constitutional carry states will be able to lawfully carry nationwide without a permit should this bill pass.

Also celebrating the victory was the NRA-Institute for Legislative Affairs, which was thrilled with the win of both this bill and H.R. 2184, which is the Firearm Due Process Protection Act. That bill gives people wrongfully denied a gun purchase due to an administrative mistake with the NICS database some kind of recourse.

The bill now goes to the full House for a vote, where it will hopefully pass.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that there are still enough anti-gun Democrats in the Senate to jam this up indefinitely via the filibuster. It kept a lot of gun control from passing when Republicans were the minority, but it’s a double-edged sword. It may keep this bill from getting the vote it deserves in the Senate.

But that doesn’t mean there’s no hope. Wheeling and dealing is part of politics, so it’s entirely possible this will be part of some deal and get put on the table for a vote, where I suspect it will narrowly pass.

For now, though, we’re seeing movement on an important bill that many of us are extremely eager to see become law.