A national gun rights organization has announced a nationwide television advertising campaign encouraging America’s gun owners to sign a Petition to Congress in support of national concealed carry reciprocity legislation introduced in mid-January by Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate.
The legislation is known as H.R. 38, the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms’ 60-second message will appear on the following cable television networks: Fox News, Fox Business, Newsmax, CNN, MSNBC, HLN, Weather Channel, CNBC, Bloomberg, BBC America, World Fishing, History Channel, TBN, AHC, Outdoor Channel, Game Show, RFD, OAN, Direct TV and DISH TV, as well as others.
Viewers will be urged to call 800-338-1251 and Press #1 to sign the CCRKBA petition supporting the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. President Donald Trump announced last year on the campaign trail he will sign such legislation if it reaches his desk.
The Center Square reported that Republican U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz from Texas, along with Thom Tillis (R-NC) and veteran Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley filed the Senate version with 40 cosponsors. In the House, Republican Representatives Richard Hudson of North Carolina and Nathaniel Moran of Texas filed the companion bill in the House, with more than 120 cosponsors.
Noting that Trump has vowed to sign, CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb stated, “America’s gun owners and concerned citizens can make that happen by flooding Capitol Hill with messages of support.”
In addition to CCRKBA, the legislation has also garnered the support of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA/ILA), Gun Owners of America (GOA), the U.S. Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), according to a press release from Congressman Hudson’s office.
“With his return to the White House,” Gottlieb said, “President Trump can reverse the anti-Second Amendment actions of the Biden administration, and restore the Second Amendment, but he needs the help of gun owners and the general public to get it done.”
Gun prohibition lobbying groups are vehemently opposed. Everytown for Gun Safety—the billionaire-backed lobby supported by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg—has blasted the proposal as “a threat to public safety.”
In their message, Everytown laments, “Concealed Carry Reciprocity would not create a national standard for who can carry hidden, loaded handguns in public. Instead, it would force all states to accept every other state’s standards, including those states with weaker or no standards.”
Actually, under the legislation, anyone crossing into another state while carrying a sidearm under his or her own state’s permit/license must still abide by the carry laws of the state they are visiting.
Language in H.R. 38 specifically states, “This section shall not be construed to supersede or limit the laws of any State that—
(1) permit private persons or entities to prohibit or restrict the possession of concealed firearms on their property; or
(2) prohibit or restrict the possession of firearms on any State or local government property, installation, building, or base.”
Translation: A licensed resident of Montana would still have to comply with the laws of New York if they were visiting, and carrying, in New York.
Still, following Trump’s November election victory, ABC News reported how the fear of national reciprocity was giving anti-gun groups fits. Nothing has happened since then to change their minds. Instead, such groups have turned their attention to state legislatures controlled by Democrats to tighten down on gun control laws, in effect, punishing gun owners in states such as California, Oregon, Washington and Massachusetts for Trump’s victory and his pro-Second Amendment efforts.
“President Trump was absolutely correct when he said our Second Amendment rights do not end at the state line,” said CCRKBA’s Gottlieb. “When our nation was founded, our forefathers didn’t need permits to carry when they crossed into different states or territories, and in today’s world, our carry permits and licenses should be automatically honored everywhere on American soil, from the Florida Keys to the Aleutian Islands.”
Larry Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel stated, “This legislation 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.”
As noted by the Center Square’s report, “The bill…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.”
“No U.S. citizen should ever need to worry about being arrested and prosecuted for merely exercising his or her rights under the Second Amendment or our state constitutions,” Gottlieb observed. “Passage of the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act would prevent such legal outrages, and provide assurance that wherever an American travels on American soil, their right to bear arms, as well as their right to self-defense, is protected.
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