Saturday, December 09, 2017

Political Benefits of National Reciprocity for Republicans

The U.S. House of Representatives is supposed to vote on H.R. 38, recently amended to be the "Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017".  The vote is expected to occur today, 6 December, 2017. (The bill passed the House 231-198)


Every state in the United  States has law that allows for the issuance of permits for the carry of concealed weapons. It is in the interest of people in those states who have concealed weapons permits for those permits to be valid in the rest of the United States.

People who can legally carry concealed weapons have been found to be exceptionally law abiding. Evidence exists that the carry of concealed weapons decreases the violent crime rate a small amount. At the worst, the evidence shows that the crime rate is not increased.


If the Republicans in the House pass Concealed Carry Reciprocity, which seems very likely, pressure will mount in the Senate to pass the bill as well. The Senate has a small majority of Republicans, 52 to 48.


Image from wikipedia


8 Democrat senators will be running in states that President Trump won in 2016. Six of those states have Shall Issue concealed carry permits. Two of them have Constitutional Carry. Wisconsin has Shall Issue and  a Constitutional Carry bill that is being considered in the state legislature. Concealed Carry reciprocity is a wedge issue that makes those Democrat senator's seats more precarious.

Shall issue: Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin

is a radical far left lesbian feminist. Her campaign ads in 2010 showed her with a man and children, implying that she was heterosexual and married, though that was not true.

Shall issue : Florida, Bill Nelson

Shall issue: Montana, Jon Tester.

Shall issue: North Dakota, Heidi Heitkamp

Shall issue: Ohio, Sherrod Brown

Shall Issue: Indiana, Joe Donnelly

Constitutional Carry: West Virginia, Joe Manchin

Constitutional Carry: Missouri, Claire McCaskill

The Republicans need to show significant differences from their Democrat opponents. Donald Trump ran on national reciprocity for concealed carry. This  issue can energize Second Amendment supporters to vote for the Republican, or at least, vote against a Senator the voted against exercise of the Second Amendment.




Gun Watch


Anonymous said...

The Problem is the supreme court over turned all J walking and vagrancy laws many years ago and some states are still enforcing them as if they could care less what the law of the land is, the same thing will happen with national reciprocity and people are going to get killed because you can not retrain corrupt ignorant cops. they will still be stopping and shooting people that are legally carrying. because most cops are chicken shit cowards pinned on a badge.

C. S. P. Schofield said...

So, of the Republicans, this is a double opportunity. Either they pass national reciprocity, or they spotlight Democrats in vulnerable seats who vote against trusting citizens.