Opposition to concealed carry reciprocity remains strong in California even though the opposition is being expressed via matters that have little to do with reciprocity itself.
Breitbart News reported that national reciprocity passed the House by a vote of 231 to 198 on Wednesday.
On that same day CalMattters reported that the legislation “would be far easier to bring a loaded gun into a California restaurant, movie theater or amusement park.” Later in the article CalMatters doubled back and pointed out that concealed carry permit holders could actually be barred from carrying in a given restaurant if the owner of the business so chooses. In other words, national reciprocity for concealed carry would not allow a permit holder to ignore an owner’s wishes to maintain a gun-free zone at his or her establishment.
The same could be said of movie theaters and them parks.
CalMatters waxes eloquent about California’s current ability to keep law-abiding citizens unarmed:
It is incredibly difficult to obtain a license to carry a hidden gun in a public place. Californians have to convince local law enforcement that they have good reason to pack a weapon, such as a specific and credible threat of personal danger. An applicant also has to demonstrate “good moral character,” which law enforcement has lots of leeway to determine. While rural sheriff departments are more amenable, law enforcement in California’s more populated regions typically do not grant many permits.
They go on to report that California Democrats’s stranglehold on freedom will be broken by national reciprocity, and they are correct in this assessment. However, the fact that California will be forced to honor the Second Amendment does not and will not remove a business owner’s options to do as he wishes with his own things.
In other words, a business will still be able to ban guns on his property (as explained above), and armed, law-abiding Americans traveling through California will have to abide by those bans.
Despite these things, CalMatters suggests state Attorney General Xavier Becerra may be considering a lawsuit if national reciprocity for concealed carry passes the Senate and becomes law.
AWR Hawkins is an award winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for the Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange
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