Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced a bill calling for constitutional carry gun laws nationwide, removing the need for conceal carry permits.
The bill, called the National Constitutional Carry Act, enforces the “rights protected by the Second and Fourteenth Amendments against the States.” It states that some states have “enacted gun control laws that are not consistent with the text of the Second Amendment or this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” Criminalizing the Second Amendment is “repugnant,” the bill asserts.
It goes on to invalidate any policy that “criminalizes, penalizes, or otherwise indirectly dissuades the carrying of firearms (including by imposing a financial or other barrier to entry) in public by any resident or non-resident who is a citizen of the United States and otherwise eligible to possess firearms under State and Federal law.” The bill maintains the right of private property owners to prohibit firearms.
“The Founders established a national right to keep and bear arms, not to ask for permission from hostile local officials, or risk imprisonment for crossing the wrong state line,” said Lee. “Many states already protect the right to carry without a permit, and it’s time to reaffirm this right for all law-abiding Americans. The National Constitutional Carry Act will establish nationwide permitless carry to keep America safe and her people free.”
The legislation has also been endorsed by the Gun Owners of America and the National Association for Gun Rights.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have introduced legislation to make the state the 30th in the nation to adopt a constitutional carry policy.
