WASHINGTON, D.C. — On the the first day of the legislative session, U.S. Representative Richard Hudson (NC-08) introduced a bill that would make crossing state lines with a gun easier for those with a concealed carry license. The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 has 66 co-sponsors from both parties and would allow people with a state-issued concealed carry license to carry their gun in any other state that allows concealed carry, as long as the permit holder follows the laws of that state.
“Our Second Amendment right doesn’t disappear when we cross state lines, and this legislation guarantees that,” Hudson said in a statement Wednesday. “The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 is a common sense solution to a problem too many Americans face. It will provide law-abiding citizens the right to conceal carry and travel freely between states without worrying about conflicting state codes or onerous civil suits.”
Hudson sponsored similar legislation in 2015, but this one also allows for concealed carry in the National Park System, National Wildlife Refuge System, and on lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation. Concealed carry laws vary from state to state and supporters of the measure say they have caused confusion for those traveling with legal weapons. Gun control proponents and critics of the measure say it undermines state and local gun laws and the authority of local governments to impose their own regulations. The National Rifle Association has come out in support of the bill.
Hudson is serving as an adviser to President-elect Trump on gun rights issues as part of his Second Amendment Coalition. The group has targeted this and other bills as legislative goals.
