Politics

GOP Congressman Introduces Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act

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Kerry Picket Political Reporter
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North Carolina Republican Rep. Richard Hudson Tuesday introduced the bipartisan Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 Tuesday. The bill, initially introduced in 2015 by Hudson, has 58 of its original cosponsors.

“Our Second Amendment right doesn’t disappear when we cross state lines, and this legislation guarantees that. The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 is a common sense solution to a problem too many Americans face. It will provide law-abiding citizens the right to conceal carry and travel freely between states without worrying about conflicting state codes or onerous civil suits,” Hudson said in a statement.

“As a member of President-elect Trump’s Second Amendment Coalition, I look forward to working with my colleagues and the administration to get this legislation across the finish line.”

Supported by major Second Amendment organizations, like the NRA, the legislation would permit individuals with state issued conceal carry licenses or permits to conceal a handgun in any other state that allows concealed carry.

This would mean that even law abiding individuals who are residents in tough restrictive gun law states like Maryland, California, and New York, for example, can use a non-resident concealed carry permit from another state, like Utah, to conceal carry in their own state.

Additionally, the bill permits residents of constitutional carry states the right to carry in other states that acknowledge their own resident’s permit.

The original 2015 legislation introduced by Hudson in the 114th Congress was similar in nature to his latest bill and had 216 cosponsors as well as an amendment to stop President Obama’s “green-tip” bullet ban. The legislation made it to the House floor but was ultimately referred to committee.

Democrats have vowed to fight any legislation that gives concealed carry permit holders reciprocal rights in any state.

Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a strident gun control advocate,  said any kind of national reciprocity bill would be “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber.

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