Despite calls for gun control in the wake of some of the deadliest mass shootings in modern American history, congressional Republicans are heading in the other direction – advancing the NRA’s “No1 legislative priority”, a bill one law enforcement leader says could allow tourists in New York City to wear concealed weapons as they wander around Times Square.



Gun control advocates and Democrats assailed the legislation – which would gut local gun restrictions, allowing Americans to freely carry their concealed handguns across state lines – as dangerous and “absurd”.

“I perceive nothing but disaster should this pass,” said Mark Jones, the project director of the National Law Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, in a press call on Wednesday.



The NRA urged its members to call their representatives in support of the legislation. “Concealed Carry Reciprocity is on the Move: Your Lawmakers Need to Hear from You NOW!” the group, which says it represents five million gun rights advocates, wrote on its website.

Q&A Why is the National Rifle Association so powerful? Show Hide It’s not (just) about the money. In 2017, the NRA spent at least $4.1m on lobbying – more than the $3.1m it spent in all of 2016. But for comparison, the dairy industry has spent $4.4m in the same period, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). The National Association of Realtors, one of the biggest spenders, has paid out $32.2m lobbying on housing issues. The NRA has plenty of cash to spend. It bet big on the 2016 US elections, pouring $14.4m into supporting 44 candidates who won and $34.4m opposing 19 candidates who lost, according to CRP. But “the real source of its power, I believe, comes from voters,” said Adam Winkler, a UCLA professor of constitutional law. The 145-year-old organization claims 5 million active members, that number is disputed, but whatever its actual size, membership is a powerful tool, said Robert Spitzer, a professor at the State University of New York at Cortland. “They have a very powerful ability to mobilize a grassroots support and to engage in politics when most Americans can barely be bothered to vote,” he said. “And because so few Americans do those things, if you get a bunch of people in a locality who are all prepared to go out to a meeting they can have a big effect." Read more Photograph: Mark Humphrey/AP

The bill advanced out of committee on a party line vote on Wednesday, and is expected to be voted on next by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Donald Trump, whose campaign from the White House was backed by a $30m push from the NRA, has pledged to support the legislation, which would require all states to recognize each other’s permits allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons in public, and would impose penalties on law enforcement officials to discourage them from interfering with gun carriers who have not broken the law.

Gun rights advocates say that concealed carry licenses should be treated the same as licenses to drive a car, which are valid across the country. Under the current system, many gun-friendly states issue permits freely and recognize permits from other states, while other states, like New York and New Jersey, have very stringent requirements for concealed carry licenses, and do not recognize permits from other states.

This patchwork of varying state laws makes it difficult for gun owners to keep track of where they can and cannot carry their guns, advocates say, and has resulted in some otherwise law-abiding people being jailed for inappropriately carrying their gun across state lines.

Gun control advocates say the comparison to driver’s licenses is misleading, largely because states have such dramatically different standards for what is required to get a permit to carry a concealed handgun. Some states have broadened the categories of people who cannot own or carry guns, for instance, to include people convicted of lower-level violent crimes, and a wider range of domestic abusers.

A dozen states do not require any permit at all to carry a concealed weapon in public, meaning that anyone who can legally own a gun is legally allowed to do it, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which supports stricter gun laws.

Bob Goodlatte, the Republican chairman of the House judiciary committee, hailed the legislation as a way to prevent gun violence in America, including mass shootings.



“We know that citizens who carry a concealed handgun are not only better prepared to act in their own self-defense, but also in the defense of others,” he said.

“In our opinion, the House of Representatives as a group is trying to give the gun lobby a pretty early Christmas present,” said Mark Kelly, the husband of former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head during a shooting attack on a public constituent meeting in 2011, and survived to found a gun control group.