Veterans, Active-Duty Members Could See Concealed Carry Nationwide Under New Bill

Republican North Carolina Rep. Pat Harrigan introduced a bill Thursday to allow active-duty and honorably discharged special operators across the U.S. to carry concealed weapons, the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation first learned.

The Special Operations Forces Concealed Carry Act would extend federal concealed carry authority to “qualified special operators” — elite military personnel whose training and marksmanship standards match or exceed those of retired law enforcement officers. The legislation would also recognize their service “without undermining existing safeguards on firearm possession in sensitive places,” according to the bill’s text.

“Federal law already trusts retired police officers to carry concealed nationwide,” Harrigan, a combat-decorated Green Beret, told the DCNF in a statement. “That makes sense. But it makes no sense that a retired SEAL or Green Beret, someone who spent a career mastering firearms under the most demanding conditions in the world, has no equivalent recognition under federal law.”

“This bill fixes that,” the North Carolina Republican continued. “It does not create new rights or weaken any safeguard. It simply extends an existing, proven framework to the warriors who have earned it more than anyone.”

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