CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Following the landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that requires all states to recognize same-sex marriages, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms raised the point that the same principle should apply to nationwide state recognition of concealed carry licenses and permits from all other states.
“To paraphrase what Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy said about same-sex marriage,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said in a press release, “no right is more profound than the right of self-preservation, and under the Constitution, all citizens should be able to exercise the right of self-defense anywhere in the country. It disparages their ability to do so, and diminishes their personhood to deny the right to bear arms they have in their home states when they are visiting other states.”
The national grassroots organization is not alone. Bob Owens at Bearing Arms.com seems to concur.
“I’ll be driving through the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York in several weeks,” Owens wrote after the ruling was announced, “places that until yesterday I did not have a legal right to concealed carry. As of today, with this decision, it would seem that these states and the District must honor my concealed carry permit, or violate my constitutional rights under the 14th and Second Amendment.”
While many states recognize the concealed carry permits or licenses from other states, this is not universal. In some states, law-abiding citizens have been egregiously prosecuted for conduct that is perfectly legal in their home state. For example, New Jersey has become notorious in recent years for prosecuting honest citizens, the most recent being the unjust treatment of Shaneen Allen, the Pennsylvania single mom who had to be pardoned by Gov. Chris Christie because she crossed a bridge from one state to the other, and was honest about having a firearm when quizzed by a police officer during a traffic stop.
“State drivers’ licenses are universally recognized,” Gottlieb commented, “and with today’s high court ruling, same-sex marriage must now be recognized in all 50 states as well. It not only stands to reason, but common sense demands that the concealed carry licenses held by more than 11 million citizens across the country should now be valid in every state without question.
Legally armed citizens have gone through background checks, which gun prohibitionists are constantly pointing to as a wonderful thing, and in many states they also must take a training course. That should be more than enough to satisfy anyone’s concerns, unless they simply want to erase the Second Amendment, which anti-gunners consistently claim to “support.”
“We’re talking about law-abiding citizens who have gone through background checks, and in many cases, state-mandated training programs,” he added. “To continue treating their Second Amendment rights as second-class privileges seems unconscionable after the court’s ruling.”
