If there was ever a reason to understand the importance of national reciprocity, trust someone like New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez to give it to you. The embattled lawmaker still fresh off of his mistrial for corruption mentioned earlier today that he felt anyone with a concealed carry license who crossed into New Jersey with a firearm should get five years in prison.

“Throw’em into prison for five years” is what New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez wants for any out-of-state concealed carry permit holder who enter his state with a firearm.

“People violate our law — we are a state that has decided that we are against concealed carry weapons. We have stronger gun laws. We believe we have made the states safer as that,” Menendez told The Daily Caller Thursday. “They violate our laws, then whatever is the law, and they are found guilty of it, they should pay the consequence.”

When pressed about travelers with concealed carry permits who may be detoured into his state by accident, he replied: “They know what our state’s law is. They should know what our state law is if they want to carry a concealed weapon. I don’t think that they just simply get detoured and they should think in advance when they are traveling.”

He continued, “I find it amazing that Republicans who believe in state rights all of a sudden have a problem observing the state rights of those states that think that stronger gun laws is the way to protect citizens and that’s what I have to say about it.”

Menendez, who is still under federal indictment for numerous corruption charges, fails to note that while Republicans may favor state’s rights, they also favor the Second Amendment which reads, in part, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

States like New Jersey do a whole lot of infringing.

If the didn’t, laws like national reciprocity would be irrelevant. However, they do, and as such it becomes necessary for lawmakers to push for laws that will mitigate the disaster created should someone cross into a state like New Jersey with their draconian and, frankly, idiotic gun laws.

Menendez’s lack of sympathy for people who accidentally run afoul of his state’s invasive gun laws exists only because he dislikes guns. As someone who has opposed enacting any kind of penalties for illegal immigration, it seems the only borders he’s worried about are ones that involve making gun owners’ lives difficult.

Him trying to point out hypocrisy is rich coming from someone like him who has basically ignored the United States Constitution with almost every position he takes, regardless of the issue. If he’s going to be serious about state’s rights, he has a lot to do. First, he needs to get out from under an indictment for corruption, but after that, he needs to learn to gain some consistency on issues.

Don’t pretend borders only matter if they belong to New Jersey. No one is interested in playing that game.