South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson wants Congress to enact national concealed carry reciprocity.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson.
This week, Alan signed onto a letter authored by Attorneys General in Missouri, Alabama, Louisiana, and Montana urging lawmakers in the Senate to pass the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 and lawmakers in the House to pass the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017.
“States should not be able to deny citizens of other states the basic constitutional right to self-defense,” Wilson said in a press release.
“South Carolinians who have gone through the process of getting concealed weapon permits shouldn’t have to worry about whether they can protect themselves and their families when they travel in other states,” he continued.
Those bills simply protect the rights of law-abiding concealed carriers. They do not change the law on who can carry. In other words, felons, minors, domestic abusers, etc. are still banned from bearing arms.
Additionally, the bills do not prevent states, local governments, and private entities from creating gun-free zones on their property.
SEE ALSO: 17 Attorneys General Send Letter to Congress Opposing National Concealed Carry Reciprocity
“Passing this law would not expand who’s allowed to have a concealed weapon permit,” Attorney General Wilson said. “It just eliminates the confusion we have now over which states recognize which other states’ permits. And makes that constitutional right uniform across the country,” he explained.
“The Framers were unwavering in their right to self-protection and steadfast in their support of the Second Amendment,” Wilson concluded.
It’s encouraging to see a handful of pro-gun attorneys general push concealed carry reciprocity. However, at the same time, it’s discouraging to see at least 17 other attorneys general reject it.
Last month, top law dogs from California, New York, Connecticut, among other states, voiced their opposition in their own letter.
“With the worst shooting in American history fresh in our memory, we urge you and your colleagues to reject these ill-conceived bills that would override local public safety decisions and endanger our communities and law enforcement officers,” stated the letter.
The NRA has said repeatedly that reciprocity is the organization’s “top legislative priority.” But it seems that every time the bills gain momentum in the GOP-controlled Congress, they’re derailed by opponents who politicize high-profile attacks to delay their consideration.
It’s sad. These bills have the potential to save lives. As we saw in Southerland Springs, TX, armed citizens have the potential to stop mass killers. By preventing responsible citizens from carrying concealed, opponents are putting more lives at risk — not fewer.
The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Seems pretty simple doesn’t it? It’s anything but. We, as Constitutional Republic, have allowed the government to get away with just about every unconstitutional law they have ever passed. We have liberal judges at both the State and Federal level, interpreting the Constitution any way they please and we have allowed it to happen right before our very eyes. Benjamin Franklin said “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Of course the left wing liberals interpret that statement, along with the Second Amendment, in whatever way suits their agenda, much as the same way people who, embrace certain lifestyles, interpret the Bible to support their position, even though the meaning is perfectly clear. Our government is completely out of control, they are there not to be out masters but our servants hence the phrase “public servant. Somewhere, the roles got reversed. The Constitution also has a clause that says “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government”. I we were ever to attempt to put that right into action, we would be murdered in the streets like dogs. People today have no idea what it would be like to step out their front door and be truly free, that ship sailed around about the turn of the 20th century. Every citizen, not otherwise prohibited, and that should be a very narrow slice of the population, should not need “permission” from the government to exercise their rights as enumerated in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. But as I said, we let it happen, because the good men and women patriots of this nation failed to rise up at the first infringement of our rights. The only positive note is that empires collapse from the inside out so, sooner or later, the problem will resolve itself.
Constitutional Carry Period……………………..
So what the left is saying is thatIm not allowed to protect myself in certain states ? Screw that . Violation of my civil rights? Sounds like a lawsuit to me . 💰💰💰💰
I absolutely agree. Obviously there are some common sense laws enacted to keep firearms out of the hands of violent criminals, unenforceable as they may be as, (secret info here: criminals don’t obey the law and will always be able to obtain a firearm, knife, club, or a brick somewhere) but, as a retired 20+ year police officer, I don’t think that, as a law abiding citizen,, who also happened to take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution from ALL enemies both foreign and domestic, should be made to grovel at the feet of bureaucrats (funny how that sounds like Democrats isn’t it?) to be “allowed of my second amendment rights as guaranteed to me by the US Constitution. I always wondered why a non-violent felon, had his or her 2nd amendment rights taken away. First of all, our rights don’t ordinate with the government, they are “God given” and therefore outside the purview of the government. There are crimes too many to count, passed because of campaign promises (for the few candidates that actually even try and keep them) which have absolutely nothing to do with the public safety and everything to do with ass-kissing wealthy donors, that should never have been felonies in the first place. Being an officer I clearly see the need to negate the rights of violent felons, but what does the second amendment have to do with crimes that have no element of violence, or the use of a firearm involved? I’ve looked the Constitution over several times and find nothing to suggest that a person’s second amendment rights should be negated because they ran afoul of some white collar crime, or failing to pay their taxes. You can’t begin to imagine how many laws have been passed, that shouldn’t have been classified as felonies in the first place. The problem is that, most people have never taken to time to read the Constitution, much less made themselves aware of our laws and how they got passed in the first place. There are a lot of laws in this country that need to be made right but, as long as we have leftist, liberal, idiots involved, sadly that will never happen. Our prisons are overfilled, understaffed, and about a full one third of the people incarcerated therein, shouldn’t even be there in the first place. Of course, if it weren’t for privately run, for profit prisons, our incarceration rates would plummet. At the end of the day, it’s all about the almighty dollar and has very little to with justice. The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the PEOPLE to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Well, it’s been infringed more times than I can count on my fingers and toes if I had 20 arms and twenty legs. As you’ll notice there is no “unless” in that amendment. The Constitution has been trampled on by both liberal and conservative alike, so many times, it’s a wonder we have any rights left. It’s all well and good when you are infringing on someone else’s rights but, not so much when it’s your own, something often forgotten by the various political factions. We need to get back to being a Constitutional centered Republic, and stop allowing these judges to interpret the Constitution any way they see fit. There, my 2 cents worth.
May God Bless the Attorney General for the State of South Carolina, a true friend of Liberty.
CCW reciprocity will ultimately change laws on obtaining CCW’s. Here in the People’s Republik of Kalifornia, people will be lining up to file lawsuits. “John Doe from TX or AZ can carry here, but I can’t?” Just look at the states listed of AG’s on the letter of opposition. They know what will come next.
Funny how the AG of SC says his citizens should be allowed to carry anywhere but deny constitutional carry states’ citizen’s to carry within their borders unless they own property within SC. Hypocrite. Hell they don’t even recognize permits from states that recognize theirs!
It’s not the Attorney General my friend, it’s their State Legislature and Governor.