House To Advance Two Gun Bills Including National Reciprocity

National reciprocity should have had an easy time of it. After all, the stars were as aligned in favor of pro-gun legislation as you were going to find. The entire government leans right politically, which should have made it a slam dunk.

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Then Las Vegas happened, and everything got turned upside down.

Now, it appears the House is set to move on two gun bills heading out of committee. One of which is national reciprocity.

The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider two gun measures Wednesday, including one measure that is a top priority of the National Rifle Association.

The committee will vote on a bill that allows gun owners with permits to carry concealed weapons reciprocity to travel to other states with their firearms. It will also take up another measure that updates the federal background check system after problems were exposed following a mass shooting at a Texas church earlier this month.

Congress hasn’t moved stand-alone legislation after the massacre in Las Vegas in October, when a shooter killed at least 58 people and injured hundreds more. Lawmakers from both parties said it was time to regulate bump fire stocks, accessories that the gunman used to allow his firearms to fire similar to automatic weapons. But top Republican leaders suggested new legislation may not be needed on bump stocks because the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could address the issue administratively. So far the agency hasn’t publicly stated whether it plans to take action on the accessories and bipartisan legislation has been introduced to ban them, but hasn’t advanced yet in the House or Senate.

The new House legislation addressing the background check does call for a study on the devices. The bill directs the Bureau of Justice Statistics to determine how many times a bump stock was used during a crime in the United States and report back to congressional committees in six months.

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A study on bump stocks is hardly the worst thing that could happen on that front.

With regard to the background check proposal, this is actually welcome news. While many get annoyed at background checks–and I tend to as well–that’s the program in place now. Having it work correctly means it becomes harder for gun grabbers to make a play for our firearms down the road. After all, it’s the idiots with the guns that are causing the problems, not the guns.

But the big boy is national reciprocity. While I tend to believe constitutional carry should be the law of the land, it’s not. National reciprocity will make it easier for those with concealed carry permits to carry while traveling outside of their home state. As it stands, carriers have to navigate a byzantine labyrinth of reciprocity between states that invariably creates holes because one state doesn’t like the way another state issues their permits.

National reciprocity clears up the whole process for everyone involved.

The fact that it also means states like California that recognize no other permits and won’t issue out-of-state permits can no longer deny individuals from other states their right to keep and bear arms while visiting is just a major bonus.

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