Concealed-Carry Madness
With New York City on track for fewer than 300 homicides in 2017, the House just passed a bill to let people with concealed-carry permits issued in any state to legally pack hidden heat in every other state, no matter what the local gun laws say.
The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017, which would also strengthen the background-check system, passed 231-198, with six Democratic “ayes” and 14 Republican “nays.”
Happily, it should die in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes but is unlikely to even get all 52 Republicans. But that doesn’t make the move any less arrogant or foolish.
The House bill goes far beyond any federal role in enforcing the Second Amendment right to bear arms — which clearly allows for regulation of that right, and says nothing about concealed-carry rights.
And even if we stipulate that concealedcarry works well enough in the areas that have chosen to license it, that’s no reason for anyone to think it would work well in areas like the city, with far different gun cultures.
“You put New Yorkers at risk . . . Who is going to pay the price for that? It’s not going to be the legislators in DC. It’s going to be us, the No. 1 terrorist target in the world,” says Manhattan DA Cy Vance, who has long warned this move would be a huge mistake.
Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), the bill’s author, calls Wednesday’s vote “a huge win for freedom,” noting that “15 million concealedcarry-permit holders across this country” are at “risk of becoming criminals because they cross an invisible state line.”
Sorry, congressman: People take such risks in lots of areas. Or is your next bill going to protect marijuana use by those who buy in a state that has legalized pot?
America is far more culturally diverse these days — with drastically different attitudes and thus drastically different laws in different states. It’s called federalism, something Republicans typically endorse.
Trying to impose the parochial ways of one area on another isn’t advancing freedom, but inviting civil war.