Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. has a word of caution for those who support national reciprocity: If law-abiding Americans’s concealed carry permits are recognized equally across the country, it will make ISIS members apply for concealed carry permits in record numbers.

So police officers are against this bill [Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act]. Prosecutors, like me, are against this bill. Who would actually be for this bill? I can offer one answer: ISIS. According to George Washington University’s Extremism Tracker, New York is the top ISIS terror target in America. Meanwhile, ISIS is increasingly recruiting radicalized attackers to murder as many people as possible, using any means available.

Following gun laws has always been ISIS’s weakness, Vance argues. Running over innocents with a car isn’t a bridge too far for ISIS, but illegally obtaining a firearm is.

Let’s not kid ourselves: ISIS is following the gun debate. Look no further than Rumiyah, its official magazine and how-to guide for terror. In its May 2017 issue, under a section titled “Just Terror Tactics,” ISIS specifically told aspiring terrorists how to exploit America’s lax gun laws to commit mass shootings on our soil:“In most US states, anything from a single-shot shotgun all the way up to a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle can be purchased at showrooms or through online sales—by way of private dealers—with no background checks, and without requiring an ID or a gun license.”

Here is the law regarding unlicensed (non-federal firearms licensees) transfers:

Even though we have these and other federal laws that regulate every single aspect of firearm sales and purchases, Vance argues that because criminals, like terrorists, will break these existing laws, we should make said crimes illegal-er while prohibiting the law-abiding from the free practice of their rights.

The CCRA is a gift to these terrorists. A person on a watch list could purchase multiple handguns at a gun show, take those guns into Manhattan and carry them, fully loaded, into Times Square. It wouldn’t be a crime until they started shooting.

Despite the absence of any, at all, evidence proving that illegally-possessed firearms involved in criminal acts do, in fact, come from gun shows, we know they do because Vance makes this claim in his op/ed. Additionally, despite New York City ranking at the bottom for felony prosecution of gun crimes, we know Vance is serious this time about prosecuting such crimes because of his op/ed.

Republican members of Congress have long championed the rights of states to establish their own laws that reflect local needs and concerns over national legislation—particularly when it comes to public safety. The CCRA tramples on those rights. If for no other reason, Congress should reject this unprecedented exercise of federal power.

Forget the supremacy clause—natural rights, such as speech, religious exercise, right to bear arms, and the press are rights that can be abridged by individual states, Vance argues.

He concludes his op/ed with the idea that because terrorists can illegally obtain firearms the law-abiding should be denied the rights that criminals forfeit with their illegal actions.