The last thing you ever want is to have the federal government issuing national – or any – firearm carry permits.
The feds do not have this power. The feds should never have this power.
Your right to have a firearm anywhere in America should never depend on getting “papers” from any government, much less federal agents based in Washington, D.C.
If you have a gun—constitutionally protected private property—and you aren’t doing anything inherently wrong, that should never be a crime. There is no victim. No one is harmed. No actual crime is committed. The idea that you need a wallet card to be somewhere you have a legal right to be is preposterous.
Too many gun owners, including some leaders of the gun-rights movement, sincere but totally misinformed and misdirected, are salivating for our permit-carrying president elect to issue some sort of national carry plan. It cannot, must not, better not be a national permit in any way shape or form.
The Best Solution
The best plan to resolve the travesty of national gun-rights denial we Americans have suffered under for generations is repeal of the restrictions that deny your rights. You don’t need no stinkin’ permit to be peacefully in possession of property.
Repeal restrictions on the right to bear arms.
The next logical step would be to arrest and charge officials who under color of law deny a peaceful person’s civil right to possess arms. Denial of rights is a federal felony under 18 USC §241 et seq. You can’t just deny a person’s constitutional, civil and human rights because you don’t like those rights. That’s got a name. It’s gunism. This law 18-241 and the ones that follow it were written to prevent haters from denying people their rights. Everyone has fundamental rights that need equal protection.
Blind hatred of guns is gunism.
If a national carry solution is proposed that does not include punishment for violators (officials who stop you solely for possession, or harass you, remove or attempt to remove your firearm for any invalid reason, incarcerate you, post signs that falsely indicate you cannot “drink at this water fountain,” or otherwise act against your legal right to keep and bear arms), experience shows they will not obey the law. We see this all the time. The law only matters if it has teeth.
We call this comitatus-style law, like the posse comitatus law. Instead of enacting, “A person may legally bear arms across state lines,” which officials can violate without repercussion, the law must say, “Anyone who interferes with a person legally bearing arms, shall go to prison and pay a fine.”
Punish official perpetrators who illegally deny your right to arms.
Recognition
One small step in the right direction is a recognition bill. This would require states to recognize the permits already issued by the states. True, it would further entrench the existing sidearm permit system, but we have to face the fact that it is already in place, and it’s likely a good first step. It advances the freedom of millions of Americans, puts more honest armed citizens out in public, and we know this deters and prevents crime. It also softens the antis arguments.
Despite the terrified but false screams from the agitated and hoplophobic left, having permitted gun owners all over the landscape does not lead to Dodge City and blood at stop lights. They cry about that every time a permit law advances, but it is 100% false every time – another great example of false news – no corrections ever issued.
Reciprocity
A far less desirable choice, it requires states to agree to grant you privileges, which can be removed, typically increases requirements, and involves bickering between unelected bureaucrats on whether you and your state are qualified to have rights in their states. Who do these people think they are?
News is circulating about four bills already in Congress to establish reciprocity, or something. They are: H.R. 923, H.R. 986, H.R. 402, and one Senate bill, S. 498. You can always look up bills by entering their numbers in Congress.gov. Four numbers, but only two basic sets of text. Both are flawed.
HR923 “allows” people with permits to carry in other states under their ever-changing permit conditions, which you would have to know, somehow. There is no penalty if officials in the other states fail to comply, which we see happen all the time. Almost everyone in America is excluded – 97% of us haven’t signed up for “papers” even though more than half of us bear arms.
HR986 explicitly prohibits arresting a person who is carrying under conditions similar to HR923, an improvement, but the other problems exist. It also creates official make-believe gun-free zones by federal law, a very bad precedent. In an effort to provide recourse, a person has an affirmative defense, so after they arrest you anyway, you can provide proof you’re legal, and then even sue. Thanks.
There is still no real penalty for their criminal denial of your rights. It is time for a law-and-order change to that whole upside-down system. The other two bills are similar to these.
I’ll be watching these.
Constitutional Carry
State after state has enacted this – freedom to carry with no government interference whatsoever. You can carry a gun pretty much like you can carry a book. It’s called rights.
And everyone knows books are dangerous. Just look at deaths caused by the Quoran, or the Commie Manifesto.
Constitutional Carry works just fine. People don’t shoot each other just because they’re armed. That’s paranoid fear perpetually projected by unstable left-wing reporters and citizens.
Anti-rights wackos scream about Freedom to Carry of course – exactly as they do about permit laws – and they’re the exact same wrong.
No one is harmed, there are no victims, crime drops, people are safer.
Instructors and ranges make a lot more money because the market increases tremendously.
You go from a measly few percent willing to sign up for a permit, to half the public that owns guns.
Get the government out of the way (permits, paperwork, police, pay up, stand in line, register yourself) and the freed-up market explodes. (At first though, trainers fear losing their government rice bowl. The smart ones get over it, grow their practices.)
Constitutional Carry is the real deal, remove restrictions, restore rights, advance freedom.
Society always benefits when liberty is restored. Establish a “Culture of Marksmanship.”
Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC) reportedly is cooking up some good new bill, but it’s not out for review yet. We shall see. Will it include punishment for rogue officials?
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Alan Korwin’s website features plain-English books on state and federal gun laws for the public, and more common sense like you just read. He invites you to write to him or see his work, at GunLaws.com, where you can get his 14 books, like After You Shoot, and DVDs that help keep you safe.
Alan Korwin, Publisher, Bloomfield Press, can be reached at alan@gunlaws.com
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