National Concealed Carry Reciprocity

So Uncle calls it “The no chance of passing act of 2014”, and I won’t say he isn’t right, but I also am not going to be quite the cynic about National Concealed Carry Reciprocity.

First this is a perennial bill since the mid-90s when concealed carry became all the rage in America, and where the myth that Florida and Texas were somehow super-liberal about their carry laws. (They aren’t…their laws aren’t bad, but as a New Englander, and specifically one from the North, one just needs to look at Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont to see what I consider GOOD carry laws, and even then Maine needs some improvement), and every year the bill does a little better each time.

Further we need to step back and look at what’s happening around us. Every state is issuing concealed carry permits at record levels. There are huge backlogs, and in some cases increases in staffing and streamlining of the process.

Also people don’t stay confined to their home state. I know the US isn’t homogenious, and those of you out West spend a LOT more time in the vast confines of your state, while the much smaller states in the East you have people like my wife and I who will hop across the border in New Hampshire to do some shopping, see some sights, or even just hit a restaurant we like, or make a quick hop up to Maine or Vermont to see family and friends.

Now of course also in New England we have the nasty habit of not recognizing other permits, New Hampshire is good, Vermont has never had a permitting system, and surprise-surprise, they’ve never needed one, nor have the states that abandoned requirements to show permitting to carry in recent years, but Maine and Massachusetts suck. Further Connecticut and Rhode Island are not at all friendly to carry, and I’ve never carried in those New England states, despite traveling there for various reasons.

Many states elsewhere in the country are good about letting you carry in most, if not all, the states that they share a border with, still I wonder how many of these new-to-carry folks, or old-to-carry, but now taking it more seriously, folks are getting permits in states like Utah which allows them to carry much easier across state lines.

I just see the demographic where such a bill would be useful growing, and I would be surprised if the representation of these people aren’t noticing.

Now I’ll step up and point out that I see the existence of a permission slip to bear my arms as an unconstitutional infringement, but as a political realist I know that we aren’t there as a country to simply dump the system entirely on a national level. Hell we JUST got to 50 states of Concealed carry.

Still others would caution that this might harm the more liberal carry states. I have my doubts, we’re almost entirely a nation of shall-issue carry, and our last hold-outs of Wisconsin and Illinois went from no-issue, to shall-issue. I just don’t see this bill turning into a monster, further I think we need this bill before we can hope for national Constitutional Carry.

Either way, contact your representation, and see if we can make some progress, even if it fails we’re getting closer every time. I’m CERTAIN this bill will pass in the near future, the only question is WHEN.