(The Center Square) – Congressional approval is being sought to allow people with state-issued concealed carry licenses or permits to conceal a handgun in any other state.
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.”
Litigation was recently filed in a Minnesota federal court by a Texas-based group, the Liberty Justice Center, on behalf of two long-haul truckers licensed to carry in Texas, Florida and Georgia. Minnesota doesn’t recognize permits from those three states or 26 others.
The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, Gun Owners of America, the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation support the legislation.
“This legislation,” said Lawrence Keane of the Shooting Sports Foundation, “eliminates the confusing patchwork of laws surrounding concealed carry permits that vary from state to state, 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 safeguards a state’s right to determine their own laws while protecting the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.”
Republican Reps. Dr. Greg Murphy, Pat Harrigan, David Rouzer, Virginia Foxx, Tim Moore and Addison McDowell are among the cosponsors.
“The right to self-defense is fundamental and doesn’t stop at a state line,” Harrigan said in a release. “This legislation dismantles the unnecessary barriers that punish responsible gun owners and ensures no American is forced to leave their constitutional rights at the border of their state.”