Gun Control Groups to ‘Spend What It Takes’ to Defeat National Reciprocity

Micheal Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety and Gabby Giffords’ Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS) are vowing to “spend what it takes” to defeat the national reciprocity legislation currently being considered by Congress.

The legislation–put forth in the House by Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC-8)–would treat concealed carry permits like a driver’s license, making a permit from one state valid in the other 49. This would free law-abiding citizens from the burdensome patchwork of concealed carry laws that presently result in carry permits being valid in some states, but not in others.

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has put forward companion legislation in the Senate.

According to The Guardian, Everytown and ARS vow to do their utmost to defeat an expanded recognition of the carry permits of law-abiding citizens. Both groups argue that national recognition of concealed carry permits would be unsafe because of the different training standards for permits in each state.

This complaint is actually a not-so-veiled admission that national reciprocity would force gun control states like California, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York, to allow the exercise of Second Amendment rights by concealed carry permit holders from other states.

For example, California currently refuses to recognize the concealed carry permit from the other 49 states and places so many limitations on its own residents that fewer than 80,000 in-state permit holders exist. This scenario will be done away once national reciprocity forces recognition of the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Peter Ambler is the executive director of Giffords’ gun control group and he suggests national reciprocity has only gained momentum because people are uneducated. He said, “We’ve got an education deficit both on the Hill and around town among members of Congress, senators, staff, members of the media.”

On April 10, 2017, Breitbart News reported that Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety pledged $25 million to defeat national reciprocity.

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.