National reciprocity has some far-reaching ramifications for those with concealed carry permits. For one, it will allow those who have been vetted and permitted in their home states to carry a concealed firearm throughout the nation. It’s one of the things gun owners believed we would see with the Republican Party in control of both chambers of Congress and the White House.

Unfortunately, it’s been slow going throughout the year, but now it looks like something is about to happen.

The House of Representatives will vote on national gun-carry reciprocity and gun background check fix bills this week.

The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 and the Fix NICS Act will be combined and likely voted on Wednesday, a GOP aide told the Washington Free Beacon Monday.

“It is my understanding they may be combined,” the aide said. “Rules is meeting at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday. They have both. Floor vote should be Wednesday.”

The House Committee on Rules website shows the texts of the two bills combined as well as an amendment filed by Rep. Dina Titus (D., Nev.) that would strip the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act from the bill. The Republican-controlled committee is likely to defeat the amendment and move the combined bill to the House floor where it is currently scheduled for a vote on or after Wednesday. The bill, which currently has 213 cosponsors, is likely to pass the House vote.

It will then move to the Senate where it will face an uphill battle to garner the 60 votes necessary for passage.

The House shouldn’t be a problem, but the Senate will be.

However, even there, it’s not improbable that some Democrats will side with the bill. For one thing, Democrats in rural or other pro-gun areas may find that opposing the Second Amendment is hazardous to their reelection chances.

Another possibility is a bit of quid pro quo. In other words, A Republican convinced the Democrat to vote for this bill in exchange for the Republican’s support on another matter.

Who knows?

But what we do know is that we’ll soon be one step closer to a saner system of laws regarding concealed carry since a permit for one state will be good for all.

Critics of the bill have made all kinds of extraordinary claims, including that the bill will allow criminals to walk the streets armed. There are some seriously stupid people out there who believe stuff like that. Meanwhile, they ignore the fact that concealed carry license holders are invariably among the most law-abiding people out there.

Of course, most of those who say this are either willfully ignorant or they’re lying. They simply don’t like the idea of armed citizens and they’ll tell any whopper they can think of to prevent there being more of them. Plain and simple.

Meanwhile, the criminals continue to carry firearms without regard for any law or regulation. They obtain them and use them regardless of what lawmakers try to impose, and they use them despite every legal code banning their activities. It’s almost like criminals don’t follow the law or something.

Law-abiding citizens with concealed carry permits not only follow the law, but they keep themselves and everyone around them safe.