The concealed-carry legislation still has to clear the Senate, where its fate is unclear. GOP notches concealed-carry victory

The House has voted to make it a lot easier to roll across state borders packing heat.

Gun-rights advocates scored a key victory Wednesday with the passage of the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act — a bill that would allow states to recognize each other’s concealed-carry permits for firearms. The legislation still has to clear the Senate, where its fate is unclear. The House vote was 272-154, with 43 Democrats joining an overwhelming majority of Republicans to pass the bill.


“This landmark legislation recognizes the importance of the Second Amendment and makes it easier for individuals with concealed-carry permits to travel to other states,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said Wednesday.

Every state except Illinois, as well as the District of Columbia, issues some form of a concealed-weapons permit, although requirements and standards differ from state to state.

Proponents of the concealed-carry bill said those varying standards — and the fact that some states are already in agreements to recognize one another’s permits — show that there need to be national standards and protections for gun owners. But the legislation’s opponents argued the bill would force states to adopt standards of other states whose requirements may not be as strict.

“Reasonable minds can disagree about the conditions we ought to set on the possessions of firearms, but we should not put officers at risk solely to appease the [National Rifle Association],” said the House Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who noted that the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Major Cities Chiefs Association opposed the bill.

The debate on the House floor became a battle over states’ rights and the Second Amendment, with Democrats repeatedly trying to use the states’ rights argument — traditionally Republican property — against the GOP.

“The United States Congress should never be in the business of stripping states of the right to make their own decisions whether to recognize each other’s permits,” said Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.). “By overriding state-based concealed-carry law and forcing states to recognize concealed-carry permits from every other state, we are putting our state and local law enforcement in grave danger.”

Republicans weren’t having it. South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy said he’s glad Democrats opposing the legislation recognized states’ rights, because “I have not heard them talk about it for the first 11 months.”

Meanwhile, the bill’s backers also argued that concealed-carry laws do not pose a threat to the public. According to Smith, statistics from the FBI’s Annual Uniform Crime Report showthat states that widely allow concealed carry have lower crime rates than those that do not.

Those states have 22 percent lower total violent crime rates, 30 percent lower murder rates, 46 percent lower robbery rates and 12 percent lower aggravated assault rates, Smith said.

“Most criminals don’t bother with legally purchasing a gun and making sure they have a valid permit before they carry it concealed,” said Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio). “They just do it. That’s why we call them criminals.”

Smith said, “Opposition to this legislation comes from those who believe concealed-carry permit holders often commit violent crimes, which is demonstrably false, or those who want to restrict the right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms.”

The bill is sponsored by Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) and had 245 co-sponsors — mostly Republicans but also several moderate Democrats. It’s uncertain whether the bill would go anywhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) did not return an email seeking comment on Wednesday.

Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York have asked President Barack Obama to issue a veto threat on the bill. Thus far, the White House has released no such statement.