Congress is making good on the president’s promise to strengthen gun rights for law abiding citizens. The House Judiciary Committee has voted to advance an important bill known as the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. The committee voted to send the bill, offered by Republican Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, to the full House of Representatives on a vote of 18 to 9.
This legislation addresses a real problem for law abiding gun owners who often fall victim to conflicting state laws governing how firearms can be carried by citizens.
When I disarmed a man who was threatening people at a Baltimore, Maryland, pub, I never thought for a moment that I would be arrested for my effort to help contain the situation and prevent people from being harmed. But that is exactly what happened to me.
It was at a July 4 gathering of family and friends when another man at the bar had become agitated over an issue involving his girlfriend. The boyfriend, angry that his date was dancing with another man, brandished his firearm and then used it to strike the other man in the head while shouting threats like, “I’ll kill everyone.”
As a firearms instructor and former member of the Marine Corps Security Force Regiment, I knocked the man down and disarmed him without causing harm to bystanders. I was also armed at the time, but I never drew my gun. But when Baltimore police officers arrived and learned that I was armed, I was arrested. The reason – because my permit to carry a firearm was issued in Virginia and was not honored in Maryland. Despite my success in neutralizing an attacker with no incident, I was arrested and charged for having a firearm within 100 feet of a public building and for not having a Maryland-issued concealed carry permit.
Baltimore police were grateful for the actions that neutralized the attacker who was charged with aggravated assault. Several officers said lives were saved, but that didn’t stop higher ranking police officers and prosecutors from treating me like a criminal.
The charges included a year of prison time, heavy fines and forfeiture of a concealed carry permit. I vehemently fought the charges – paid my own legal bills – and ultimately received a sentence of one year of unsupervised probation. Such punishment was not only unnecessary, it was insulting. My defense attorney told the court, the “good guy with the gun” was placed under arrest for simply “having a gun.”
As a trained Marine and a member of a respected security force that has helped protect the president, I’ve responsibly carried my firearm in many different foreign countries. Yet lawful gun owners in America must still contend with restrictive and conflicting gun laws that differ between state lines and place law-abiding people at the risk of experiencing highly stressful, lengthy legal hassles.
All of this can change as the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act advances through Congress. The law will allow for national conceal carry reciprocity in all 50 states ensuring that citizens who legally carry firearms for personal protection in their home state, can do so in all 50 states, without fear of punishment. If such legislation is passed, there will be no more reason for lawful citizens to face conflicting, confusing laws that often get them into trouble with police through no fault of their own.
Many states like Maryland, New York, New Jersey and states on the West Coast have outdated, restrictive gun laws, and people continuously fall victim to unnecessary state or local restrictions. It is estimated that there are more than 21 million concealed handgun permit holders in the United States today. That figure doesn’t include the people living in states where concealed carry permits are not required.
Plenty of people in this country routinely travel great distances for work, to help family, etc. Women, truckers, seniors and other law-abiding folks have the right to carry firearms – state to state – without fear of unnecessary punishment. Congress can fix this national problem by passing national concealed carry reciprocity.
Lloyd Muldrow is a recipient of the Carnegie Medal – America’s highest civilian honor for heroism, a Marine Corps veteran, and a combat and firearm instructor.
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