#hr38

Are you a member of the Gun Owners of America? Do you receive the monthly GOA propaganda letter? Summary: "This is FULL reciprocity. It allows citizens in the growing number of constitutional carry states to travel with their firearms even when they leave the state. It also allows citizens who live in anti-gun states to get permits from other states, which their state must recognize." I understand where you're batshit crazy paranoia of this going south on us, and I generally agree that "there oughta be a law" should be met with someone smacking the face who said it, the fed is obviously too big, far more powerful than it's supposed to be, and there's extremely little we can do about it.

This would be a federal protection effectively ENFORCING the second amendment, "The right of the people to keep and bear arms." That's what national reciprocity is about. You probably have the privilege of living in a state that isn't actively attempting to deny you your right to have arms. In contrast MY state just tried to make it illegal for you to have unlocked firearms in the house (punishable as a class c felony and making home defense literally impossible) mandatory registration and serialization of all existing 30 round magazines and making it illegal to buy/bring more to the state. They tried to reduce that capacity of all rifles and pistols to 10 rounds, redefining and banning "assault" rifles to include basically every rifle with a pistol grip and 1 accessory of some sort, including scopes. If this shit sounds it's some fantasy hunger games level communist shit that's because it is, and it was real. Fortunately none of it passed but, like most anti-gun bills, they'll be recycled hoping to slip through the cracks, hence our required vigilance. 

As a military member formerly stationed in VA I acquired my VA CCW as quickly as I moved off base (because gov property is exempt for state permits/laws), I lived on the border of VA and NC and frequently road tripped through the east coast states. Reciprocity allowed me to carry in only a few of these (Vermont, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Maine) for all others I would stop before the border, unload and lock my gun someone inaccessible from the drivers seat, attempting to ensure that I would be protected by the federal protections afforded to intrastate transit. It was extremely not cool, a violation of my rights as an American, simply because half the east coast is communist in all but name, (example the "commonwealth of Virginia/Massachusetts"). I had to sell some of my guns before I moved to Boston (new duty station) due to their magazine capacity restrictions for anyone without a level A CCP, which was not attainable from an out of state resident not yet actually stationed in state. Bullshit. Despite this I still possessed some items that are completely legal in most states, which almost turned out to be a very very bad thing for me. I got lucky. Really lucky.

Handgunlaw.us has an absolutely fantastic Reciprocity map but you know what would be fucking awesome? If you went to handgunlaw.us and the front page said, “Are you an American? If yes, concealed carry for every adult over 21 in all 50 states (unless otherwise prohibited from gun ownership)” Instead they have a tool where you can input your permit/s and it'll show you everywhere in the nation you can legally carry due to the reciprocity of your permits. Even with 2 permits I cannot carry in 14 states. Among those were states I didn't live in by choice, states I traveled through many times, when I finally moved back "home" I had to drive through 4 of those states on my 3000 mile road trip. 

While this may hold utterly no bearing on some people, this attempt of guaranteeing a citizen's right to keep and bear arms, should be a no brainer. The fear of this being convoluted into full scale registration, a nationwide permit system or whatever is pure paranoia, the bill offers no mechanism for that to occur. It's not asking for the funding required or the retasking of pre-existing government body to stand up a new department of permits or some such, it's not saying you even have to have a permit at all, in effect it plainly says IF you have the right to carry anywhere in the country you have the right to carry EVERYWHERE in the country. Being against National Reciprocity because it doesn't particularly apply to you is just like being one of those Fudd fuckers that don't care about gun laws until it affects "hunting". Your fear and paranoia of gov't overreach is just your justification for being against it, the reality is you are comfortable where you are and don't give a fuck about the rest of us.

Even IF, god forbid, Hillary somehow becomes the next president, or Michelle Obama (which, BTW, I believe we should amend the constitution to state that anyone having been First lady or man at any point in a lifetime exempts your eligibility for office. Legally a married couple are perceived as “one” right? The spouse of a former president becoming president themselves would be effectively giving the first one 1 or 2 more terms, which is obviously bullshit), after 4 years of national reciprocity how many more gun owners will we have? how many more people will be carrying regularly thanks to the convenience of National Reciprocity? And someone new is going to come in and turn that around? We've all said it, if you fear that eventuality just remind yourself, “FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!” An unarmed majority probably wouldn't succeed against an armed minority. Level the scales a little more, give it time to become a natural part of our culture they'll have no choice to get over it, or leave.