Good news for US gunslingers

ARMS: LAWMAKERS VOTE FOR CONTROVERSIAL MOVE Bill would allow anyone with a permit to carry hidden weapons in any state.

Washington

US lawmakers voted on Wednesday to allow gun owners to carry concealed firearms across state lines, a controversial Bill that critics say is aimed at undermining national gun control efforts.

The move came two months after the worst mass shooting in modern US history, when a gunman who had taken a vast arsenal into a Las Vegas hotel fired down on concert-goers and killed 58.

It passed the House of Representatives 231 to 198, after six Democrats joined all but 14 Republicans in supporting the Bill, which will also need Senate passage if it is to become law.

The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act would essentially allow anyone with a permit to carry hidden weapons into any state, including Washington DC, which has some of the toughest restrictions on carrying guns in public.

It would also allow people to carry concealed weapons into federally owned lands, including national parks.

The nation’s top pro-gun lobby group, the National Rifle Association, declared the Bill its “highest legislative priority”, while House Speaker Paul Ryan framed it as a vote “to protect our citizens’ Second Amendment rights”.

But Gabby Giffords, a former congresswoman critically wounded by a gunshot to the head in a 2011 assassination attempt, sounded an alarm immediately.

“After two of our nation’s worst mass shootings, Congress took direct instruction from the gun lobby and passed a Bill that will override existing state laws and allow dangerous, untrained people to carry guns in every state and every city,” Giffords, now an anti-gun violence activist, said in a statement. –