When the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms last week called on President-elect Donald Trump to “make the Second Amendment great again,” one item of possible business that got attention on social media was national concealed carry reciprocity.
SAF and CCRKBA encouraged Trump to have his new attorney general appoint an assistant AG to focus on egregious laws that violate the Second Amendment. Gun rights advocate Alan Gottlieb pointed specifically at state laws in New Jersey, Maryland, New York and California that allow local bureaucrats to throw impossible roadblocks in the way to discourage people from exercising their rights.
But if Trump follows through on one of his campaign themes, that might change.
In today’s Connecticut Mirror, a story about gun control points to something Trump wrote in his book Crippled America: How to Make Our Country Great Again:
“I’m very much in favor of making all concealed-carry permits valid in every state. Every state has its own driving test that residents have to pass before becoming licensed to drive…Those tests are different in many states, but once a state licenses you to drive, every other state recognizes that license as valid. If we can do that for driving – which is a privilege, not a right – then surely we can do that for concealed carry, which is a right, not a privilege. That seems logical to me.”
It seems logical to millions of armed private citizens, too. Only the gun prohibition lobby and its Capitol Hill surrogates will have a problem.
Trump will have the opportunity to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by last February’s death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The hope is that he nominates someone with a similar constitutional philosophy as the late justice. If he also gets to fill other seats n the next four years, it could open the way for a court decision on the right to bear arms.
Trump has also indicated he would like to end so-called “gun-free zones,” which seem to have become the location-of-choice for mass shooters.
Last week, the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre delivered a video message declaring “Our Time is Now.” With Second Amendment-friendly Republicans in control on Capitol Hill next year, and Trump taking office Jan. 20, he could be right.
What it will take is for gun owners to not become complacent. That was one of the constant themes during the national Gun Rights Policy Conference in late September.
Back on Nov. 7, gun owners were bracing for bad news. Thirty-six hours later they had played a major role in accomplishing what seemed impossible.
Starting in January, many believe they can do it again, by turning back bad gun laws and restoring the Second Amendment to a right, rather than a regulated privilege.
Related:
DoD Releases Policy for Packing Guns on Military Bases
