Concealed Carry: the Permitting Patchwork

Given the current debate over gun control, I have done a significant amount of research concerning guns, permitting, and the like. I'm not going to beat you over the head with the same talking points you've probably heard a thousand times already. Instead, I'm going to delve into something that's been a problem for quite some time now and propose an actual solution.

Now, if you think the idea of a citizen being allowed to carry a handgun as they go on about their daily lives is abhorrent, you'd probably best stop reading now. I'm pretty much writing to those people who support the right to carry.

As I was poking about on the Internet, I stumbled upon USAcarry.com. I don't know much about this organization and am not making an endorsement here but their website provides a very interesting service.

Courtesy of  USAcarry.com

You can see, via an interactive map, what states accept other states' concealed carry permits. After only a few minutes, I was shocked at how patchy states' reciprocity is.

As you can see here to the left, if I had a permit from my old home state of Texas, I would be good to carry in thirty five states (slightly fewer if I had a non-resident permit). The blue states are those where I could carry, red means I couldn't, Texas is green because it's selected and Illinois is black because they've never heard of the Second Amendment.

Courtesy of  USAcarry.com

However, if I were to obtain a permit from my current home state of Minnesota, the map to the right paints a completely different picture. A Minnesota permit allows for carry in only twenty four states.

Even if you disagree with me on the right to carry, surely we can agree on this: such a patchwork is silly.

Now, the easiest solution would be to hand all permitting to the Federal Government.

And that would be really, really stupid.

Indeed, when we have a problem that affects all the states, our default setting is to turn to the Feds. However, we have a federalist system. In our system of governance, the states have rights (many more rights than are actually afforded to them).

Since we have apparently agreed as a society that the carry of concealed weapons must be regulated and the Constitution does not provide for such regulation to be undertaken by the Federal Government, that authority must then fall to the states.

Unfortunately, this then creates the nightmare of one state trying to create reciprocity with forty nine other states and five U.S. possessions too. And, judging by those maps...it just doesn't happen.

So now on to my proposed solution.

I believe that those states who wish to secure this freedom for their citizenry should look to form a coalition through which all member states will seek to create a universal standard for training and licensing. Provided that each member state implements these standards, each member state will provide full reciprocity to every other member state.

Each member state could withdraw at anytime, upholding the appropriate sovereignty for each state.

It seems to me, that such a coalition would increase training standards for citizens and universalize appropriate background check methods.

I would, however, like some input on this. Is such a group destined to fail because of differences?