Editor's Note: This article is from Gun Pulse, an email-only newsletter from The Sentinel published six days per week to cover the battle over the Second Amendment.
President-Elect Donald Trump has promised to endorse national concealed carry reciprocity once he returns to office early next year as part of his law and order agenda.
Trump promised in a video posted on social media last year that he would sign the policy if reelected, thereby allowing firearm owners who have a concealed carry permit from their home state to legally carry their weapons across state lines into other jurisdictions.
“I will protect the right of self-defense everywhere it is under siege. And I will sign concealed carry reciprocity,” he said. “Your Second Amendment does not end at the state line.”
There are currently a wide variety of state laws surrounding concealed carry, as well as a patchwork of rules which regulate the ability to take concealed firearms into other states. Those who live in North Carolina with a concealed carry license, for instance, can carry in Virginia without added restrictions, but in Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina with restrictions.
Various gun rights organizations celebrated the decision while also calling for the passage of national constitutional carry, a policy which would allow firearm owners across the country to conceal their weapons without first obtaining permission from their state or local governments.
Texas Gun Rights remarked on social media that concealed carry reciprocity would represent “a big win,” especially for those who are “living under the thumb” of states with severe gun control, but said that “national constitutional carry should be the standard” across the entire country since “nobody should need a permit to exercise their constitutionally protected rights.”
Moms Demand Action, an entity which supports increased gun control, meanwhile said that concealed carry reciprocity is a “reckless policy” that they will attempt to defeat.
“It would eviscerate state gun laws and make it easy for people with dangerous histories to carry concealed guns in public nationwide,” the gun control organization claimed.
