When Opportunity Knocks...
When opportunity knocks, it might not be the door…it might be a window instead. The Overton Window, specifically, but more about that in a minute
Every time national concealed carry reciprocity comes up, I hear gun people yelling stuff like, “what about national constitutional carry?!” and “I don’t want no national permit!” and “the 2A is my permit!” With a gun rights movement like this, the Democrats won’t need to defeat HR 38. The greatest obstacle to the passage of a national concealed carry reciprocity law is us…the gun community, and some of the Republican politicians we elect. Because of this, I’ll tell you that I don’t think that national reciprocity has a snowball’s chance in hell of passing. It’s a damned shame, too, because tucked away in this relatively short document (read it HERE) are a couple of really big benefits for American gun owners and the gun rights movement.
The first benefit comes down to the immediate impact it would have. Passage of HR 38 into law would mean, basically, that if you are not a prohibited person and possess a permit to carry, then that permit is valid in all 50. Think about that for a moment. The bill doesn’t specify that you have to have a permit from your state of residence. This is a big deal. Suppose you are a resident of New Jersey, and can’t get through their permitting scheme. Under HR 38, you go and get yourself a Florida non-resident permit (easily obtainable by mail), and now you can carry legally in the Garden State. States such as these, which still restrict their citizens’ access to carry permits with exorbitant fees, training requirements, and regulatory mazes would be absolutely gutted by HR 38. That’s a good thing.
What’s more, HR 38 doesn’t even specify that you have to have a permit at all. Let’s say you live in a constitutional/permitless carry state, like I do (Kentucky). Under the language of HR 38, I could legally carry in New York City with nothing but my Kentucky driver’s license. In other words, those of us from states which already have permitless carry would essentially have national constitutional carry.
Which brings us to the second reason this bill is a big deal. Now we’re looking beyond what it gets us in the near-term, to what it gets us down the road. This is strategy, not tactics. I’m old enough to remember the national freakout in 1987 when Florida enacted its shall-issue permitting law. Although it wasn’t actually the first state to do so, for some reason the news media latched onto it. I can remember TV news reporters interviewing people saying they were now afraid to vacation in the “Gunshine State,” and predicting Florida was returning to the Wild West, and that the streets would soon run with blood. I’m also old enough to remember that none of these dire predictions came to pass.
As a result, shall-issue permitting expanded to eventually encompass almost all 50 states (at least according to Bruen, if not in practice just yet). And there was still no Wild West, no blood in the streets. Next thing you know, we have 29 states with some form of permitless carry in place. But would 29 permitless carry states have been possible in 1987? Of course not…the country wasn’t ready for it. But as it gradually became easier and thus more common for citizens to carry concealed legally, with none of the horrifying predictions of the anti-gun movement coming true, it became harder for them to stop that momentum and easier for us to roll back unconstitutional infringements. The Overton Window of what was palatable to American society and American politicians regarding guns had shifted, and is still shifting in our favor. We want to keep that going. If we want to get to true national constitutional carry, we’re probably going to need to go through national reciprocity first.
That’s the real, long-term benefit of this bill, and this is why the entire gun rights movement needs to get behind it. Even if it doesn’t get us everything we want, it gets us a lot. For the record, I’d like to see every gun law passed since 1791 ripped out root and branch. But I’m a realist, and that isn’t going to happen all at once, if ever. The existing laws which infringe on our right to keep and bear arms were not enacted in one fell swoop, and we’re not going to get rid of them that way. But HR 38 is forward progress. In the near term, it would greatly enhance the ability to legally carry for many Americans. In the long term, it moves the Overton Window in a direction that benefits future Americans, even if it doesn’t get us everything we want today.
President-elect Trump has already stated that he would sign a national reciprocity bill if it made it to his desk. This bill has languished in Congress for eight years, so I’m skeptical that it has much of a chance, but it may be the best chance we’ll have for a long time. You know the Democrats will fight it tooth and nail, so we cannot afford Republican opposition (Thomas Massie*). Call your representatives and insist that they co-sponsor HR 38, and vote yes if it should get to the floor (NRA-ILA Take Action link HERE).
*If you’re new here, you really should familiarize yourself with Rep. Thomas Massie’s history of opposition to national concealed carry reciprocity, and his ongoing effort to conceal his true position on it.
