BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is throwing its support behind national concealed carry reciprocity legislation introduced this week by Congressman Richard Hudson (R-NC), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
President-elect Donald J. Trump, who will be inaugurated Jan. 20, has already promised to sign a reciprocity bill if it reaches his desk.
“The time is long past due for this nation to enter the 21st Century by recognizing the right to bear arms doesn’t stop at state borders,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “This is, and always has been, a core issue for the Citizens Committee and we will encourage all of our members and supporters to tell Congress it is time to make reciprocity the law of the land.
“The way was paved for national reciprocity with the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 ruling in the McDonald case, which incorporated the Second Amendment to the states via the 14th Amendment,” he observed. “It is simply a matter of common sense that all states should automatically and unflinchingly honor carry permits and licenses issued by every other state. After all, the bearing of arms for self-defense is a constitutionally-protected right, and it’s time for states such as California, Connecticut, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and a few other states, along with the District of Columbia, to recognize that.”
An earlier reciprocity measure passed the House in 2017, but was never considered by the Senate.
“Passage of a national reciprocity bill will go far in the effort to fully restore the Second Amendment to its rightful place in the Bill of Rights following years of erosion,” Gottlieb stated. “When we became a nation, the right to keep and bear arms traveled with all Americans as they moved from state to state, across territories and the vast wilderness which became the United States. The right was honored and respected from sea to shining sea, and it should be the same today.”