During a January 6 interview for the Breitbart News’ podcast, “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC-8) stressed that Americans need to pressure their Senators to support national reciprocity for concealed carry.
Hudson introduced national reciprocity legislation on the first day of the 115th Congress and he believes the Senate will be the site where pitched battles over the legislation take place.
He told Breitbart News he was able to file his legislation on January 3 “with about 63 co-sponsors” in the House, and that number quickly jumped to 85 co-sponsors when the NRA and Gun Owners of America endorsed the legislation. He said that Americans who support the effort to free the Second Amendment from a messy patchwork of concealed carry laws need to contact to their Representative to be sure they are on the bill.
Hudson then addressed the Senate, saying, “The Senate won’t be as easy to pass as the House. In the Senate it takes 60 votes to break a filibuster and we only have 52 Republicans. So, assuming we can hold those 52, we’ve got to get eight Democrat Senators to vote with us.”
But Hudson said he believes getting four of the eight Democrats “won’t be that hard” because Senators like Joe Manchin (D-WV) are up for re-election in 2018 and their constituents are extremely pro-gun. He also mentioned Senators Joe Donnelly (D-IN) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) as Democrats whom he believes will support national reciprocity because their constituents do.
Hudson said:
We can create heat and there are number of Democrat Senators up for reelection in two years in states that Donald Trump carried. And so I think the key is going to be our new President Donald Trump–who campaigned on this issue–if he’ll get out there and put a little heat on these folks I think he can help them do the right thing.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.