LLOYD MULDROW: GOP-Led Congress Can Put Giant Win On Board For Gun Owners

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.