Time for national reciprocity law

When I travel from God's country here in North Carolina, my concealed carry permit is recognized without restriction in 30 states, so I can go from Florida to Pennsylvania (if I avoid Maryland where my wife's sister lives) and be legally armed. But when we cross the state line into New York, where my wife's family has a summer home, my pistols can't come with me.

As the King James Version saith, that sucketh. Isn't the right to keep and bear arms protected by the national constitution, the 2nd Amendment to our Bill of Rights? Yes, the Supremes just said by a razor-thin margin in the Heller vs. D.C. case. But. There's always a but. They didn't throw out all the state and local laws restricting RTKBA, just the D.C. monstrosity. So the fight goes on, city by city, state by state. Or maybe there's a better way to skin this particular cat.

A.W.R. Hawkins asks Is It Time for Federal Reciprocity of Concealed Carry Permits?

There are at least two strong justifications for national reciprocity. The first springs from the Second Amendment itself, where we read that the right to keep and bear arms “shall not be infringed.” With these words, our Founders were hedging in a natural right and thus placing it off limits from federal or state government interference. Moreover, as Justice Antonin Scalia rightly concluded in the Heller case, our Founders did not want a city government -- such as San Francisco, Chicago, or D.C. -- to infringe upon it either. No government constructed by man has the right to deny us the rights that are ours by way of birth.

In other words, laws or policies that infringe upon our natural rights are wrong whether those laws or policies emanate from the President, the Congress, the court system, a state government, or the San Francisco City Council. Our Founders gave no government a veto over natural rights. This is why Ted Nugent is quick and accurate in saying he “has a concealed carry permit called the Second Amendment.”

Government-issued laws that limit our right to keep and bear arms are infringements on natural law itself. Like the Supreme Court said in the Heller decision, natural rights are preserved by the Constitution, and the right to self-defense is a natural right. It’s our right as humans, not something the government granted us out of its good grace.

In other words, maybe us gun nuts shouldn't be using a pea-shooter to protect our rights. Let's break out the cannons and go for the biggest target of all, a federal reciprocity law. Great idea!