Republicans have had a long history of earning, over and over, the title: “The Stupid Party.” Democrats/socialists/communist (D/s/cs), for all their anti-liberty/gun/America faults, are with few exceptions able to march in lockstep to enact their legislative priorities, but not Republicans. Republicans have been unable to muster the political testicular fortitude to pass a variety of Second Amendment initiatives in the past, even when they completely controlled Congress and the White House, whining “it isn’t the right time.”
An explanation of why the time has not been right, or when it might be, is yet to be forthcoming.
Sadly, this lack of action on national concealed carry, national constitutional carry, concealed carry reciprocity and delisting suppressors has given anti-liberty/gun cracktivists great comfort, but provided no public safety benefit for sane, normal Americans. Bruen (2022) made clear Americans’ right to carry firearms not only on their property but elsewhere, which applied common sense to a text easily understood by most but twisted and ignored by some. Of what use is the right to self-defense if one can’t have the best, most common and usual tools necessary to secure it wherever they might be? Yet blue states and cities continue to foot drag, desperately trying to make the law-abiding felons, and trying to hold out for a president that will pack the Supreme Court with D/s/c activists rather than constitutional jurists. Then they’ll show those gun nuts!
Well, the “gun nuts” have the opportunity to begin to be a bit less stupid. Senators Cornyn and Kennedy have introduced a bill for national concealed carry reciprocity. In a press release, Kennedy notes:
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today joined Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and colleagues in introducing the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. The bill would allow individuals with concealed carry privileges in their home states to exercise those rights in any other state that allows concealed carry, so long as one exercises those rights within the limits of each respective state’s laws.
Under Bruen, every state must allow citizens to carry common and usual arms, concealed or openly, so what’s the problem? Blood will run in the streets! There will be shootouts at every traffic accident! We don’t trust the laws of other states; they’ll give felons guns! State’s rights; state’s rights!
Those were the anti-liberty/gun arguments serially trotted out to oppose concealed carry, and later, constitutional carry—no license required for people not otherwise prevented by law from gun ownership. None of those supposedly inevitable horrors came to pass, and no state that passed either has ever seriously considered repeal. The new law would:
*Allow individuals with concealed carry privileges in their home states to exercise those rights in any other state that has concealed carry laws.
And why not? Why should anyone exercising a fundamental, express, unalienable right recognized and secured by the Constitution be turned into an instant felon merely by crossing a state line?
*Treat state-issued concealed carry permits like drivers’ licenses, allowing an individual to use his or her home-state license to drive in another state while abiding by the speed limit of whatever state that person is in.
Just as with the privilege of driving, everyone has to obey differing traffic laws wherever they drive. The most obvious comparison is those driving in other states would have to be sure to avoid carrying in prohibited places different from those in their home states. Certainly, anti-liberty/gun cracktivists don’t want to expand Second Amendment liberties; they want to diminish them.
National reciprocity has many additional benefits:
Kerry Slone, founder of We the Female, told Townhall that the act “is a huge advantage for domestic abuse survivors trying to escape their abusers to have the ability to defend themselves when fleeing to other states.”
There are, of course, potential downsides:
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Graphic: X Screenshot
Cohen makes a valid point, but it’s virtually certain the 29 states that have adopted constitutional carry wouldn’t revoke that useful and popular law. Blue states will surely not go for constitutional carry anytime soon; their status quo will endure.
National concealed carry reciprocity would be a good first step, but that kind of success ought to be accompanied by the steps I’ve mentioned, or at the least, very quickly followed by additional advances in liberty. Delisting suppressors, more a public health issue than many the health establishment has foisted on Americans, would be an ideal companion to Kennedy’s bill. Why should government treat a simple device that preserves hearing like machineguns? Why should they be far more difficult to buy than common firearms?
Donald Trump has promised to sign the bill. We’re about to see just how stupid the Stupid Party remains.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
This article was originally published at www.americanthinker.com
