Representative Richard Hudson Introduces National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Bill to Congress

You can't have GAINZZZ without GUNZZZ.

On January 3--the first day of the 115th Congress---Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC-8) introduced national concealed carry reciprocity legislation.

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Hudson's legislation not only establishes national reciprocity for concealed permit holders but also national reciprocity for residents who live in states that require no permit for concealed carry. In the former situation the concealed carry permit of any state would be valid in every state and the "identification document" in possession of a resident of a constitutional carry state would serve as a permit to carry without a license in other states.

Good? I don't know.

This bothers me on federalism grounds. States do in fact make compacts permitting just this sort of reciprocity -- I don't know why we need a federal law to do it.

And the bill seems to offer up a thin reed indeed as a justification for federal jurisdiction -- the bill makes any gun shipped or sold in federal commerce legal to carry via these reciprocity rules.

That part rankles me -- this very dubious theory that federal jurisdiction obtains in any case where any good or service has been sold across state lines, or anyone has even thought about crossing state lines, is plainly an unconstitutional end-around the states' power to make their own laws.

I support the idea behind this, but I don't know about the method. I do know that states have compacts for reciprocity. It seems to me that a better method would be encouraging more of that, or streamlining the out-of-state licensing process, or the like.

For example: if a state has a law that you need to attend courses to get your concealed license, and that course must be administered in-state, I could see Congress saying that that last requirement runs afoul of the Commerce Clause, and that, for example, Utah must permit Utah-certified instructors to give gun safety courses in Georgia, so that Georgians can more easily get their Utah permit.

That seems to me something more in spirit of the real Commerce Clause -- breaking down states' attempts to create barriers to trade and one-state monopolies.

With that kind of rule, a Georgia resident who wants to concealed-carry in every state that permits it could get licensed in many states by going to nearby instructors.

But I don't know about bigfooting states' rights to determine that a concealed carry permit should only be held by someone who takes a couple of days of classes and say that they must permit anyone from a state without such a requirement to conceal-carry in that state.

posted by Ace at 05:44 PM

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