A US senator from Texas wants to enable Americans to travel across state lines with their concealed weapons.

The Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, introduced this week by US Senator John Cornyn, would allow concealed weapons permits issued in one state to be recognized in any state.

The nation’s largest gun rights group cheered the legislation, saying it would “respect the rights” of gun owners.

“The current patchwork of state and local laws is confusing for even the most conscientious and well-informed concealed carry permit holders,” Chris W Cox, executive director of the NRA-ILA, the group’s lobbying branch, said in a statement.

“This confusion often leads to law-abiding gun owners running afoul of the law when they exercise their right to self-protection while traveling or temporarily living away from home. Senator Cornyn’s legislation provides a much needed solution to a real problem for law-abiding gun owners.”

Opponents argue that such a law would inevitably trample stricter state or local laws when permit holders cross state lines. In the US, states regulate how citizens may carry concealed weapons. There is currently no federal law governing this practice.

Under the proposed bill, a state would, be required to honor permits issued by other states. And under the bill, those barred under federal law from owning a gun would still be prohibited.

“Federally imposed concealed carry interferes with states’ fundamental right to determine who is too dangerous to carry hidden, loaded guns in public – and it would create a lowest common denominator that makes the weakest state requirements the law of the land,” “said Everytown for Gun Safety’s president, John Feinblatt, in a statement.

“This NRA-backed bill to allow just about anybody to carry anywhere with no questions asked should be rejected outright,” he said. “Backers of this irresponsible legislation seem to be talking out of both sides of their mouth – favoring states rights on other policy issues and undermining states’ careful public safety decisions when it comes to guns.”

As of last year, all 50 states allow citizens to carry concealed weapons in public, though some states such as Arizona and Alaska do not require a permit to do so. Illinois was the last hold-out but the state’s ban on concealed weapons was overturned by a federal appeals court in 2013. The state was forced to adopt a concealed carry law that went into effect in 2014.

A majority of states have some version of a reciprocity rule in place honoring permits issued by a neighboring state or a state with a comparable standard, and a handful of states honor all out-of-state permits.

Everytown has published a report explaining that some states require a criminal background check on concealed carry applicants, while others do not, concluding that “congressionally imposed automatic reciprocity would intrude on states’ most basic authority to determine which criminals, stalkers, and domestic abusers are too dangerous to carry hidden handguns in public.”

Cornyn proposed similar reciprocity legislation that fell three votes shy of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate. With Republicans controlling both houses, the bill may have a better chance of clearing Congress.