Trump backs national concealed carry reciprocity, GOA wins in court

When President Trump spoke recently at the Mack Trucks facility in Macungie, Pennsylvania, gun owners were encouraged to hear his call for national concealed carry reciprocity.

He’s right. Constitutional rights should not end at the state border.

And the need for reciprocity is not theoretical. Armed citizens save lives every year.

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Recently, a Marine veteran carrying a concealed firearm helped police in Massachusetts stop and capture a convicted felon who had illegally obtained a firearm and was randomly shooting at drivers.

In Missouri, two armed citizens encountered an active shooter in a parking lot and stopped him. According to the police, their actions prevented further bloodshed.

Stories like this happen all over America. But millions of law-abiding gun owners still risk becoming criminals by crossing an invisible state line.

You can drive your car in all 50 states. You can take your family, your luggage, even your dog with you. However, in many states, you cannot bring home a firearm that you legally carry for self-defense.

This doesn’t make any sense.

There is legislation in Congress that would establish national concealed carry reciprocity. Unfortunately, the Senate has become the graveyard of many pro-gun reforms.

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The last time the Senate voted on reciprocity was in 2013, when the measure actually received 57 votes. A majority of senators supported it, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the filibuster. At the time, there were still a handful of Democrats willing to vote for legislation protecting the Second Amendment. Those days are largely behind us.

Fortunately, Congress isn’t the only battleground.

While politicians argue, Gun Owners of America is building a nationwide patchwork that allows law-abiding Americans to carry guns to more and more places.

It started with Constitution Transportation.

GOA was the first national agency to make permitless carry a legislative priority. Today, thanks to years of continuous work by GOA and our allies, 29 states recognize the Draft Constitution. In more than half the country, law-abiding citizens no longer need government-issued permission to exercise their constitutional rights.

But GOA did not stop there. We also applied to the courts.

Anti-gun states like New York and California have refused to recognize visitors’ rights for decades. If you live elsewhere, they deny you any meaningful opportunity to legally carry.

GOA challenged these policies and won. As a result, both New York and California must now provide a way for qualified, law-abiding Americans in other states to obtain concealed carry permits. This isn’t full reciprocity because applicants still must navigate each state’s permitting process. But these states can no longer close the door on out-of-state residents just because they don’t live there.

We follow the same principle in Illinois.

Currently, Illinois recognizes permits for residents of only six states: Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, Texas and Virginia. GOA opposes this discriminatory system because the correct number is all 50 states, not six.

GOA’s legal victories did not occur in a vacuum. They were built on a constitutional principle that the Supreme Court definitively reaffirmed in 2022. This was the Supreme Court’s landmark Bruen decision, which made clear that the Second Amendment protected the right to carry a firearm outside the home.

Many anti-gun states complied; but only on paper.

Those who could not directly ban the practice developed new ways to make the exercise of this right almost impossible.

One of the worst examples became known as “Vampire Rule”. Like folklore vampires who supposedly required permission before entering a home, states like New York and Hawaii required gun owners to obtain affirmative permission before taking over nearly all private property open to the public.

The result was predictable. Overnight, legal carry was banned in most stores, restaurants, gas stations and businesses in those states.

GOA sued New York and won.

Hawaii initially prevailed in its own case, creating a divide among federal circuits. This gave the Supreme Court the opportunity to intervene.

In Wolford v. Lopez, the Court struck down Hawaii’s Vampire Rule, reaffirming that constitutional rights cannot be overridden by requiring Americans to ask for permission before exercising them.

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Freedom won.

Law-abiding Americans do not need to ask permission before moving into their neighborhood grocery store, gas station or restaurant.

Freedom was not suddenly restored. One cause, one state, and one victory won all at once. Even here in Virginia, the GOA recently won a temporary injunction challenging the Commonwealth’s unconstitutional ban on the carrying of certain common firearms.

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National reciprocity remains an important goal, and we welcome President Trump’s support in making it a reality.

But until Congress acts, GOA will continue to do what we always do; using the courts, legislatures, and all available legal remedies to ensure that the right to bear arms is not eliminated the moment an American crosses a state line.