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Health & Fitness

National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Bill of 2011

Why gun permit holders ought to be allowed to travel in in other states while carrying.

Imagine your state-issued drivers license not being recognized as you drive on the interstate from your home state through other states. Imagine that unless you had a driver’s license in each state you traveled through you would be violating the law and subject to arrest and incarceration in each of those states.

Of course, and thankfully, reciprocity between the states permits a United States citizen to drive anywhere. Makes sense -- and driving is not even a constitutionally protected right.

However, today, law-abiding American citizens in virtually every state risk that very scenario: arrest, fines and incarceration, by exercising their constitutional right in carrying a concealed firearm.

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Yes, as two recent United States Supreme Court decisions have held, the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects a fundamental, individual, right to keep and bear arms and the protections of the Second Amendment extend to infringements under state law.

Now, fortunately, the bipartisan supported National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Bill proposed by Representatives Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), in the United State House of Representatives would allow any person with a valid state-issued concealed firearm permit to carry a concealed firearm in any state that issues concealed firearm permits, or that does not prohibit the carrying of concealed firearms for lawful purposes. A state’s laws governing where concealed firearms may be carried would apply within its borders.

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It is about time. Today, 49 states have laws permitting concealed carry. This bill does not create a federal licensing system; rather, it would require the states to recognize each others carry permits, just as they recognize drivers licenses and carry permits held by armored car guards.

The National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Bill should be passed.

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