Very good news on this topic. As you may know, for many years now there have been efforts to pass a national concealed carry reciprocity provision which would mean that if you have a concealed carry permit from one state, you could lawfully carry in all other states that allow for concealed carry (which presently is 49 of the 50 states).
At present, there is a confusing and regularly changing mess of a situation where some states recognize permits from some states but not others. We discuss this in detail in our article about the best way for Washington residents to get as broad a set of concealed carry permissions in other states as possible.
Last week, the House of Representatives passed the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, also known as HR822. This was passed by an encouragingly broad majority of 272 to 154, with nearly all Republicans supporting it, and being joined by 43 Democrats. This act – you can read it here (and it is amazingly short) would allow exactly what we hope for – a situation analogous to drivers licenses; a concealed carry permit from your home state works equally well in all other states too.
Interestingly, our own WA congressman Dave Reichert had an uncertain role (in terms of did he help or hinder) in the final form of the act. He successfully added an amendment which is now section 4 of the act, requiring the GAO to report back within a year on how easy it is for state and local law enforcement officers to verify the validity of out-of-state concealed weapons permits.
Dave has been at best an uncertain friend to the Second Amendment, and this provision opens the door for a negative report back – ‘The police tell us it is too hard to check on the validity of a person’s concealed weapons permit’ – which could have one of two consequences; neither good. The first would be repeal of the new law due to it being proven to be unworkable in the field. The second would be the creation of a federal level concealed weapons permit registry system and license, and few of us can feel comfortable at the thought of allowing another level of government bureaucracy to get in the middle of our right to carry concealed weapons.
If the states can solve the de minimus problem of identifying out-of-state (and even out of country) drivers licenses, surely they can solve the ‘problem’ of how to identify out-of-state concealed weapons permits too. This should not be an issue, and it is a concern that Reichert has allowed it to potentially become one.
Anyway, it is what it is.
The next step is for the Senate to pass a matching law. HR822 has been referred to the Senate, but at present there is not yet any schedule set for its hearing or for a vote. Then of course, we have to cross our fingers and hope another time that the law would receive presidential approval too. That is far from certain.
If you’d like to help, you could contact our two senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and ask them to support the bill and to help it move speedily through the senate. Click the links for the contact information for each of them. Neither are known to be at all pro-gun, but if enough of us call, it might at least dissuade them from actively participating in moves to hinder the bill’s passage through the senate, and the more they hear from us, the more they may find themselves needing to rethink their current gun-unfriendly positions.
Talking points to raise with these two ladies include :
- You have had a concealed weapons permit for (however many) years and have never been in trouble with the police because of it
- You sometimes travel out-of-state, and as soon as you cross the state line into Oregon, your gun rights are zeroed out due to Oregon refusing to recognize WA permits (although Idaho does). In total, 25 states (and DC) refuse to recognize WA permits.
- The bill passed with bi-partisan support in the house, including the support of a quarter of all Democratic Congressmen
- The concept is no more extreme – and just as necessary – as requiring each different state to recognize other states’ driving licenses (and there are many different driving laws in each different state, and vastly more deaths and injuries on the road each year than from handguns)
- The bill doesn’t trample over each state’s rights – out-of-state permit holders have to observe the laws of the state they are visiting (just the same as with drivers)
- The bill clears up an area of appalling confusion at present that sees ordinary law-abiding citizens risking the danger of becoming inadvertent felons (if one state has suddenly stopped honoring another state’s permit – how can we possibly keep fully up to date on this)
Remember the old adage – keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. We need to be regularly in contact with Maria and Patty on this and all other gun rights issues.