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Democrats promise to kill any national conceal carry reciprocity agreement in the senate
Image source: George Frey/Getty Images

Democrats promise to kill any national conceal carry reciprocity agreement in the senate

With President-elect Trump's victory firmly in the bag, the NRA has begun work on helping craft gun-friendly legislation that will make owning and carrying a gun far easier for the millions of gun owners across the country. According to the Wall Street Journal, at the top of the list is a measure that will allow conceal carry permits to be recognized across all 50 states, also known as a "reciprocity agreement."

“People are turned into criminals because of the confusing patchwork of laws around this country,” says NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said. “Law-abiding citizens should be able to exercise their constitutional right regardless of what state they’re sitting in.”

She's not wrong. What states will recognize conceal carry permits from other states is a patchwork that many people often become confused about. For instance, Nebraska may honor a conceal handgun license from Texas, but not from Georgia. New York and California are quite strict about their CHL acceptance, and travelers going from state to state carrying a handgun would be forced to avoid them.

So the NRA wants to fix this problem and make a blanket reciprocity agreement for the entire nation with Trump's help. According to WSJ, this is already being attempted.

One bill, introduced by Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, would allow individuals carrying concealed weapons anywhere in the U.S. to abide by the laws of their home state. If an individual’s home state requires a permit to carry, he or she must carry the license across state lines. But if a state allows individuals to carry guns without going through the permit process, they may do so in all 50 states.

However, the GOP notes that this is a bill that will likely not happen, as the Democrats will stand in the way of it happening. In fact, Democrats have vowed to make sure that should a national reciprocity agreement surface in the senate, they will filibuster until it's dead.

Peter Ambler, executive director of Americans for Responsible Solutions, a gun control super PAC, said his organization plans to fight national reciprocity “tooth and nail,” threatening a Democratic filibuster of the legislation in the Senate.

“It’s a race to the bottom,” he said. “It allows people that have permits from states with the weakest standards possible to carry [weapons] in the streets of any U.S. city.”

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat and ardent gun-control advocate, said he believes any version of a national reciprocity bill would be “dead on arrival” in the Senate, due to strong Democratic opposition.

Blumenthal has also said that Democrats are planning to push forward with even more background check legislation, and work with Trump on banning those on the terrorist watch list from owning firearms. Trump has stated in the past that he would like to see to it that those on the terrorist watch list should be banned from owning guns, and is a position that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and the NRA disagree with Trump about.

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