Republicans in the U.S. Senate and House introduced the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which President-elect Donald Trump has said he will sign.
Companion legislation was filed by senators and congressmen led by Texas and North Carolina Republicans with multiple cosponsors.
U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both Republicans from Texas, Thom Tillis, R-NC, and Chuck Grassley, R-IA, filed the bill in the U.S. Senate, joined by 40 cosponsors. U.S. Reps Richard Hudson, R-NC, and Nathaniel Moran, R-TX, filed the companion bill in the House, which has more than 120 cosponsors.
The bill applies to “a concealed handgun (other than a machine gun or destructive device).” It allows gun owners with concealed carry privileges in their home states to exercise those rights in other states that allow concealed carry while abiding by those states’ laws.
Anyone “who carries or possesses a concealed hand gun in accordance with [the law] may not be arrested or otherwise detained for violation of any law or any rule or regulation of a State or any political subdivision thereof related to the possession, transportation, or carrying of firearms unless there is probable cause to believe” to believe otherwise, according to the bill language. “Presentation of facially valid documents as specified in subsection is prima facie evidence that the individual has a license or permit as required by” the law, it states.
Under the bill, state-issued concealed carry permits would work similarly to driver’s licenses. Drivers can currently drive in any state using their home-state driver’s license in all 50 states but must also follow those state’s speed limits and road laws.
The bill also protects state sovereignty by not establishing a national standard for concealed carry. It doesn’t apply to state laws that allow private persons or entities to prohibit or restrict concealed carry on their premises or interfere with state restrictions on state or local government property. Those possessing concealed carry licenses are permitted to carry in areas open to the public managed by the National Park System, National Wildlife Refuge System, Bureau of Land Management, Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and Forest Service, according to the bill language.
“The Lone Star State has long championed our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, and gun owners in Texas and across the country should not have that fundamental right violated when they cross state lines,” Cornyn said. “This legislation would reduce unnecessary burdens for law-abiding citizens and allow them to carry a concealed firearm in every state that permits it.”
The bill has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association, U.S. Concealed Carry Association, National Shooting Sports Foundation and Gun Owners of America.
NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence Keane says it “solves the problem of the confusing patchwork of laws surrounding concealed carry permits, particularly with regard to states where laws make unwitting criminals out of legal permit holders for a simple mistake of a wrong traffic turn.” It also “safeguards a state’s right to determine their own laws while protecting the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.”
In November, President-elect Donald Trump announced he would sign a concealed carry reciprocity bill into law. “I will protect the right of self-defense wherever it is under siege. I will sign concealed carry reciprocity. Your Second Amendment does not end at the state line,” he said.
At an NRA event in Dallas last year when talking about illegal border crosser crime, he said, “to further deter these barbaric criminals and help you defend yourself and your family, I will ask Congress to send a bill to my desk delivering national right to carry reciprocity.”
The bill is expected to pass Congress. After Trump signs it into law, it would go into effect within 90 days, according to the bill language.
