The House Judiciary Committee is preparing several bills for markup today, March 24, among which are two measures aimed at protecting and advancing gun rights. Both bills – the Firearm Due Process Protection Act and the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act – would remove barriers that infringe upon the lawful exercise of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
Clearing the Paper Jam
On March 18, Republican Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District reintroduced the Firearms Due Process Protection Act. “Every year, thousands of law-abiding Americans are wrongfully prohibited from exercising their constitutional right to own a firearm, not because they are criminals, but because of bureaucratic errors,” Emmer said in a statement. “Our legislation provides important legal pathways for Americans whose Second Amendment rights are wrongfully restricted and reestablishes congressional oversight of the FBI and NICS system.” NICS is the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, through which all firearms purchases from licensed dealers are run.
The meat and potatoes of this bill are the deadlines. As it stands, sometimes people are denied the right to purchase a firearm because of background check errors. Fixing the problem can be a long and winding road. As a personal anecdote, this writer has a friend who was once turned away from a gun store after a background check threw up a criminal conviction that never happened. His appeal to have his record corrected took many phone calls and letters and a great deal of time – much of which he spent assuming he was simply being ignored. It was nearly two years before he received a letter out of the blue stating that the failed background check was due to an error and that he was cleared to make his purchase.
The Firearms Due Process Protection Act would impose a 30-day deadline for a hearing should anyone challenge the results of a NICS background check, during which the burden of proof falls on the FBI and NICS system to prove the individual is ineligible to own or buy a firearm. If it is determined at the hearing that the government’s records are erroneous, the FBI is responsible for fixing it and covering all “reasonable” costs incurred by the complainant in challenging the results.
Gun Rights Nationwide
The other gun rights bill headed for markup today is Rep. Richard Hudson’s (R-NC) Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. “Our Second Amendment right does not disappear when we cross invisible state lines, and this commonsense legislation guarantees that,” Rep. Hudson said when he introduced the bill back in January.
In simple terms, this bill would require any state that has a concealed carry permit available to its own residents to honor the equivalent permit from any other state. So, get a concealed carry permit in Florida, and it’s good in Texas, etc. But if you find yourself thinking this is hardly news, as many states already have reciprocity agreements, think again. That’s just the surface-level effect. This thing has layers; peel back the onion, and you’ll find more.
Section 2 establishes that:
“[A] person who is not prohibited by Federal law from possessing, transporting, shipping, or receiving a firearm, who is carrying a valid identification document containing a photograph of the person, and who is carrying a valid license or permit which is issued pursuant to the law of a state and which permits the person to carry a concealed firearm or is entitled to carry a concealed firearm in the State in which the person resides, may possess or carry a concealed handgun (other than a machine gun or destructive device) that has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce in any state that –
“(1) has a statute under which residents of the State may apply for a license or permit to carry a concealed firearm; or
“(2) does not prohibit the carrying of a concealed firearm by residents of the State for lawful purposes.”
It goes on to say that “a person who carries or possesses a concealed handgun in accordance with subsections (a) and (b) may not be arrested or otherwise detained for violation of any law or any rule or regulation of a State or any political subdivision thereof related to the possession, transportation, or carrying of firearms unless there is probably cause to believe that the person is doing so in a manner not provided for by this section.”
Subsection (a) is the first quoted bit of legislation, and subsection (b) is an exception clause that allows private property owners and government facilities to still prohibit folks from entering armed.
Now let’s unpack just how far that goes. As of February of this year, 29 states allow permitless concealed carry – or constitutional carry, as it’s more commonly called. So anyone who has a permit in any state – or who simply lives in one of these 29 “con carry” states and isn’t disqualified from owning a firearm – would have the right to enter any state, county, city, or town in the US with any concealed handgun that isn’t considered a machine gun or a destructive device.
There is a caveat that only states which allow their residents to apply for a permit to carry a concealed weapon are bound by this rule – but that’s the case in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, meaning there isn’t anywhere in the US where this wouldn’t apply.
Now let’s dig deeper. The only kinds of concealable handgun forbidden in this legislation are machine guns and destructive devices. And the bill declares that a person can’t be arrested related to “any law or any rule or regulation of a State or any political subdivision thereof,” so long as the person abides by the rest of this law.
Want to carry a handgun with a threaded barrel in Los Angeles? How about an AR pistol with a barrel shroud and muzzle brake in Chicago? If so, this bill’s for you.
