During the September 7 of Armed American Radio with Mark Walters, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said his concealed carry legislation is stalled because Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) does not want Congress to touch it.
National reciprocity legislation—H.R. 38—would treat concealed carry permits like driver’s licenses, making a permit from one state valid in the other 49. Massie is the sponsor of H.R. 2909, which covers a blind spot in the national reciprocity legislation by mandating that Washington DC recognize concealed carry permits from all 50 states.
H.R. 38 was introduced in Congress on January 3, 2017, and HR 2909 was introduced in June, following the attack on GOP Congressmen at Congressional Baseball Practice. But both bills are currently languishing in Congress.
Mark Walters asked Massie about the lack of movement on national reciprocity, and Massie said, “The Speaker told me he didn’t think the timing was right.” An exasperated Massie then added, “But this is the exact time to bring this bill. So it is frustrating for me.”
Massie continued, “Listen, I was no fan of [Speaker] John Boehner, but even under John Boehner, I was allowed to offer an amendment to the DC Appropriations Bill to defund all their gun control laws. It passed in the House. … We got all but four Republicans to vote for it and 20 Democrats voted to defund all of Washington DC’s gun control laws.”
He explained that he secured the necessary votes to defund DC gun control at a time when no specific event provided the impetus for doing so. Now, however, the Alexandria baseball practice attack has provided impetus, making the passage of HR 2909 a no-brainer. Yet Massie admitted, “Paul Ryan will not let me bring that amendment to the floor.”
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