National CCW Reciprocity Gets Heavyweight Support

Okay, we’ll admit it right up front; one day this correspondent is going to retire — but that doesn’t mean I won’t be packing. And since I may want to go fly fishing in Montana or tour down the Oregon Coast, the idea of national carry reciprocity just makes sense.

Following up on Insider’s Jan. 22 report regarding the proposed National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act introduced by North Carolina Congressman Richard Hudson last month, the legislation is getting some heavyweight support from the United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA).

We were advised recently via email about an online USCCA petition “urging support for the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which has already received over 80,000 signatures in the first two weeks.” That was a couple of weeks ago, so the petition likely now has even more signatures.

What about reciprocity? Insider has carried in numerous states on a Washington or Florida license. We drove once from eastern Montana to Washington and never had to worry about violating a law as a state line was crossed. Some years ago, while attending a boating law enforcement conference in Michigan, we drove halfway up the state “cocked and locked.” Our license is honored in Indiana, and the Florida license is honored in Wyoming.

However, Oregon and California are out. We could get sacked in other states as well — New Jersey, New York and Maryland for example — so national reciprocity seems like a pretty good idea whose time has come.

USCCA, with more than 540,000 members across the country, has joined other groups to support Hudson’s legislation. Tim Schmidt, the group’s founder and president, explained the problem:

“The current patchwork of state and local laws is overly complex for even the most conscientious concealed carry permit holders,” Schmidt said. “It puts law-abiding citizens at risk of being charged with a crime or worse, being left in a situation where they cannot defend themselves or their families.”

Opponents argue reciprocity would allow criminals to cross state lines to commit crimes, which is a remarkably stupid contention because bad guys already do this. USCCA, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and other gun rights groups support Hudson’s measure.
https://action.usconcealedcarry.com/
https://hudson.house.gov/press-releases/hudson-introduces-bipartisan-national-concealed-carry-reciprocity-bill

Then There’s ‘Constitutional Carry’

There’s a growing movement toward permitless carry; that is, carrying a concealed handgun without a license or permit of any kind.

It’s the law in about 16 states, and that number could soon be higher. We made mention of this a couple of weeks ago, and now there’s an update with an interesting twist.

Generically, this no-license-required scenario is called “constitutional carry” because advocates say when the Second Amendment was adopted nobody needed a permit to carry any kind of gun anywhere on U.S. soil. Constitutional carry proponents want to return to those good old days.

The idea definitely has critics, not the least of whom is Shannon Watts, founder of the Moms Demand Action gun prohibition lobbying group. She was quoted by the Associated Press declaring, “It is dangerous to allow people to carry hidden, loaded handguns possibly without a background check or any training.”

Recently, her followers in Montana went after Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, for pushing a permitless carry bill through the legislature in Helena.

Rather than deal with facts, the name-calling started. Marbut, who happens to be a friend of this column, was smeared as “a reckless gun extremist.” Name-calling is a signal they’re losing an argument. Among such radicals, the Second Amendment is treated as a “loophole,” and owning a gun is considered a regulated “privilege” rather than a protected fundamental right.

Here’s a question for readers: Do you support or oppose “constitutional carry” and why? Make your answers brief and on point in an email, and we’ll run them in a future column.

Anti-Gunners Want 6 Things

It’s always nice to have a shopping list, and gun prohibitionists in Nevada recently offered one to the Democrat-controlled Legislature in Carson City.

They don’t want a lot; only six recommendations are listed in a little “report” produced just days before the Legislature convened Feb. 1 in a document prepared by Chelsea Parsons, vice president of Gun Violence Prevention at the Center for American Progress, and Annette Magnus, executive director of the Institute for a Progressive Nevada.

• Repeal the “essential business” status of gun shops
• Prohibit people who commit “hate crimes” from possessing firearms
• Ban so-called “ghost guns”
• Require licensing prior to purchasing firearms
• Update (which translates to gut) Nevada’s state preemption law
• Ban so-called “assault weapons” and original capacity magazines

If you live in the Silver State, you just might want to contact your legislator.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/guns-crime/reports/2021/01/27/495010/6-policies-reduce-gun-violence-nevada/

Need a Lyft?

A female Lyft driver — uh, make that former Lyft driver — in Cleveland, Ohio identified as Cynthia Norman may be alive today because she pulled her legally-owned and lawfully-carried handgun on a couple of 20-something scumbags who began beating her early on the morning of Jan. 10, and opened fire.

Both thugs suddenly became world-class track stars fleeing into the darkness and leaving Norman somewhat the worse for wear, but still alive. But, oops, instead of showing some support for their driver, Lyft showed Norman the door.

According to WOIO, the local Fox affiliate, Norman was fired because Lyft has a zero-tolerance policy about drivers packing heat. The story was also reported by American Military News, which quoted Norman observing, “They didn’t know I was going to fight back.”

Many companies have rules about carrying guns on the job. Maybe that’s why people working in convenience stores, all-night neighborhood markets or the late shift at a fast-food establishment have sometimes stopped bullets. It’s easier to beat, stab or shoot someone when they can’t shoot back.

Norman reportedly was upset at the loss of her “supplemental income,” but since she’s still alive, we figure she’ll get over it and hopefully get a better job with a better company.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/01/lyft-fires-female-driver-who-used-concealed-gun-to-stop-2-men-violently-attacking-her-in-car/

https://www.fox19.com/2021/01/13/cleveland-lyft-driver-fired-admitting-firing-legally-owned-gun-during-attempted-carjacking/

Sure, Guns are Responsible

Now, jump ahead to January and a city about 2,000 miles to the west where we find a suspect identified in court documents as Jacob Dean Little, now behind bars and charged with the second-degree murder of D’Andre Deshawn Flynn back on Aug. 30, 2020 in the Seattle, Wash. suburb of Renton.

In Little’s case, investigators didn’t have to go looking for him in another state. Indeed, police found Little already in custody at a federal detention facility in SeaTac. He was there on charges of stealing a patrol rifle out of a burning Seattle Police Department vehicle during a May 30 riot stemming from a Black Lives Matter protest. He was arrested Sept. 4, several days after the Flynn slaying.

The point of these two tales, which appear destined to end behind bars, is the suspects (they have not been convicted) misused firearms. If they’re found guilty, guns didn’t make them do anything, but they’ll likely never get their hands on guns ever again.

https://cwbchicago.com/2021/01/another-man-free-on-bail-for-two-felonies-charged-with-killing-retired-fireman-in-botched-carjacking.html

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/everett-man-charged-with-murder-and-assault-in-connection-with-august-shooting-in-renton/

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